LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 






# 






f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, t 

W W 



V 



TOBACCO 

WHAT IT IS, 



AND 



WH.A-T IT OOE^ 



BY 

DAN KING, M. D. 

FELLOW OF THE MASS. MED. SOCIETY, LATE COMMISSIONER ON TRIALS. 
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MED. ASSOCIATION, ETC 



■< -C-C3. »-*- 



NEW YORK: 

B. S. & W. WOOD, PUBLISHERS. 

1861. 










/ X 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1861, 

By Dan King, 

In the Clerks office of the District Court of Rhode Island. 



PREFACE. 



Although many of the evils arising from the use of 
. tobacco have been known since its first introduction into 
civil life, yet they appear to have been generally disre- 
garded by the masses, and in spite of every effort to the 
contrary this useless and pernicious habit has continued 
to spread and increase until it is found in every inhabited 
country on the globe ; and as all the various measures 
hitherto employed to arrest its progress have proved in- 
effectual, the only hope left appears to be in the diffusion 
of information among all classes, and appeals to the 
good sense of an intelligent and reflecting public. Al- 
though the noxious qualities of this plant and its delete- 
rious effects upon the human system, are better under- 
stood at the present time than formerly, yet it must be 
presumed that there are many who are not fully aware of 
their number or magnitude ; and in view of the startling 
developments which are brought out in the following 
pages the author has thought proper . to introduce ample 
testimony, of the highest order, in support of every im- 
portant allegation. Notwithstanding the very common 
use of tobacco everywhere, the world is mil cf the most 



IV. 

reliable and positive testimony against it ; and the author 
has the satisfaction of knowing that if he has erred in the 
matter under consideration, he has erred with the wisest 
and best of men both at home and abroad. 

In preparing the following work the author has been 
greatly assisted by the perusal of an excellent little man- 
ual written by Professor Lizars of Edinburgh and recently 
republished in Philadelphia. The author of that work is 
now one of the most eminent surgeons of Europe ; it con- 
tains much valuable documentary "information of a high 
order, and should be carefully studied by every- young 
man in the United States. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION 9 

CHAPTER II. 

The abnormal effects of tobacco. — Its poisonous principles. 
— Their fatal effects upon animals. — Morbid symptoms 
and diseases that follow its use. — Extracts from Sir 
Benjamin Brodie 13 

CHAPTER IIL 

Tobacco induces or hurries on Consumption and Haemop- 
tysis. — It poisons the blood. — Kills leeches, bugs, etc. — 
Intoxicates the nursing infant.— Causes nervous affec- 
tions, Amaurosis, Deafness, etc. — Weakens the recu- 
perative powers. — Use of long pipes. — Tobacco Dyspep- 
sia. — The use of tobacco no protection against conta- 
gious diseases. — Death from sleeping in a room with 
tobacco 31 



in. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Effects 'of tobacco upon the mind. — Men of strong intellects 
have seldom made use of tobacco.— Anecdote of Napo- 
leon Bonaparte. — Tobacco debilitates and depraves the 
intellect. — Quotations from Dickens, Adam Clark, Wes- 
ley, Drs. Solly, Abernethy, Carlyon, and Johnson. — 
Amount consumed in Great Britain in a single year. — 
Extracts from Lizars 45 

CHAPTER V. 

'Smoking worse than Snuffing or Chewing. — Cigars worse 
than Pipes. — Snuffing nearly given up. — The earlier 
in life tobacco is used, the worse its effects.— Smoking 
a nuisance. — The cost of tobacco considered. — Danger 
from fires 53 

CHAPTER VI. 

Does tobacco shorten life ? An extract, etc 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

The use of tobacco impairs the memory. — Anecdote of Dr* 
Franklin , 70 

€HAPTER VIII. 

Other effects of tobacco.— Case reported by Professor 
Chapman. — Opinion of Dr. Wright. — Experiments 
upon dogs. — Argument advanced by the Nashville 
Medical Journal, answered ....... 74 

CHAPTER IX. 

Disorders that arise from sleeping with those who nse 
tobacco — Case reported by Dr. Huff of New York. — 
Statement of Dr. Prout 82 



Vll. 

'CHAPTER X. 



The eflects of tobacco upon the appetite considered.—* 
Smoking leads to drinking, and drinking to smoking. — 
An extract from Dr. Budgett of London 89 

CHAPTER XI. 

Tobacco in the same category with intoxicating liquors. — 
Extracts from Professor Miller, and Dr. Marshal Hall. — 
.Nicotin employed for murder. 96 

CHAPTER XII. 

The free use of tobocco produces Individualism 104 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Mental operations checked or suspended by the use of 
tobacco. — Persons accustommecl to its use seldom aban- 
don it. — Communication from Benjamin Silliman, 
M. D. a L L. D 112 

CHAPTER XIV. 

• 
Tobacco a source of revenue in France. — One evil made to 
support another.— Rum and tobacco as luxuries. — Do 
they add to the real enjoyments of life 1- — Early history 
of tobacco. — Prohibitions ineffectual. — The odious cha- 
racter of growing tobacco. — etc 118 

CHAPTER XV. 
Tobacco inclines the mind to Infidelity 128 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Drugging cigars for felonious purposes — They may be- 
come the medium of communicating a noisome disease. 
— Extracts from Drs. Johnson and Solly, etc 137 



vm. 
CHAPTER XVII. 

Considerations connected with reform 143 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Miscellaneous Observations and Reflections 151 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Concluding Remarks 101 



TOBACCO; WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION. 



In intellectual philosophy, nothing is more 
difficult, than to convince men of truths against 
the testimony of their own senses. By observa- 
tions and reasoning, the ancient philosophers 
became convinced of the earth's rotundity, and 
its diurnal and annual revolutions, but the publi- 
cation of these discoveries, met with instantaneous 
and universal opposition ; besides, their supposed 
contradiction of scripture, the new doctrine was 
summarily refuted by the evidence of every 
man's senses — the earth was obviously a broad, 
horizontal expanse — day after day, and year 
year after year, all their lives long, all had seen 
the sun rise in the east, move slowly across the 



10 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

heavens, and go down in the west ; and against 
such palpable /testimony, no arguments founded 
upon abstract principles, had any force ; the 
world looked upon the science of astronomy as 
the vagaries of mad men, and treated its authors 
as felons. At length the dawning of science 
slowly dissipated the darkness of ignorance and 
superstition, and by degrees men began to ques- 
tion the testimony of their senses, and reluctantly 
to acknowledge the wonderful truths announced 
by Gallileo and his followers. Yet, although the 
main principles of Grecian astronomy were sus- 
ceptable of easy demonstration, men were slow 
to set aside the prima facie evidence of their 
own senses, and embrace the sublime truths 
which it brought to light. And at the present 
time, the chemists, physicians, and scientific men 
who by their labors and observations have ascer- 
tained the poisonous nature of tobacco, and its 
deleterious effects upon mankind, are regarded 
much as the ancients regarded the first promul- 
gators of astronomy. Every one has seen 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 11 

tobacco in constant use, all around him, his life 
long ; and he is not aware that any one has been 
poisoned, or in any manner injured by it, and 
therefore he believes it to be harmless. Acting 
upon his own brief and imperfect experience, 
and yielding to motives of interest or inclination, 
he looks with perfect contempt upon all the 
evidences and arguments that scientific investi- 
gations can present. The march of intelligence 
may correct the mistakes of the senses, but the 
universal cupidity of mankind, which ever seeks 
for gain, regardless of means, and the unlimited 
love of animal pleasure, can only be corrected by 
moral considerations, the power of example, and 
the force of public opinion. The more the sub- 
ject is examined, the greater its importance 
appears, and the constantly increasing cosump- 
tion of tobacco, certainly deserves attention ; we 
live in the midst of tobacco fields and tobacco 
manufactories, and, judmg from appearances, 
one might be led to conclude, that the chief 
errand of life was to smoke. Apparently regard- 



12 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

less of all consequences, the habit is spread over 
the whole country, and communicated from pa- 
rents to children, generation after generation. A 
most virulent poison has come to be considered, 
not only innocent, but absolutely necessary to 
the common enjoyments of life, and whoever 
attempts to hold a parley with its devotees, if he 
does not find himself required to answer for his 
temerity before a legal tribunal, will be pretty 
suie to incur the most severe public censure. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 13 



CHAPTER II. 

The abnormal effects of tobacco. — Its poisonous principles. 
— Their fatal effects upon animals. — Morbid symptoms 
and diseases that follow its use. — Extracts from Sir 
Benjamin Brodie. 

Tobacco, as a luxury, is more extensively em- 
ployed than any other narcotic. People of all 
nations, of all religions, and in all conditions of 
society make use of it — yet it is a poison and an 
enemy to human life, and ever injurious to the 
physical and intellectual powers. We will first 
consider some *of its most obvious effects upon 
the bodily organs, and then proceed to point out 
its influence on the mind and moral conduct. It 
may be said in the beginning, that in whatever 
way tobacco is employed, all its effects are strictly 
abnormal, and that it never contributes in the 
least degree to the natural requirements of the 



14 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

system. Whether the individual smokes or chews, 
the first effect of the tobacco is that of a siala- 
gogue. As soon as the article comes in contact 
with the mucus membrane of the mouth, and 
fauces an increased quantity of mucus, and sa- 
liva is poured out to protect the nervous extrem- 
eties from the virulence of the poison, which 
would otherwise soon destroy life. This. abnor- 
mal flow of saliva, charged with the essential oil 
of tobacco, must either be swallowed or spit out. 
If any ordinary smoker, or chewer, swallowed 
all his own saliva, he must inevitably die in a 
short time from the poison, unless it was thrown 
off by vomiting. Ail the impulses of his nature 
urge him to discharge the nauceous secretion as 
fast as it accumulates, and the repulsive habit of 
spitting, is the necessary consequence. In the 
course of twenty-four hours, an individual may 
discharge in that way, from a gill, to a quart, or 
more of saliva and mucous, impregnated with 
the poisonous qualities of tobacco. This is a tax 
upon the vital energies of the system > for which 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 15 

it receives no equivalent. A proper quantity of 
healthy saliva is always necessary for a healthy 
digestion, and undep ordinary circumstances, all, 
or nearly all that is secreted, should go into the 
stomach for this purpose. The use of tobacco 
increases the quantity, but vitiates the quality of 
that fluid, so that besides carrying a poisonous 
element with it, into the stomach, it is thinned, its 
solvent power diminished, and an imperfect di- 
gestion and assimilation follow as the necessary 
consequence. The tongue and inside of the 
mouth, being continually exposed to this poison- 
ous irritant, become of a firy red color, and when 
an individual has used tobacco freely, for many 
years, the whoie prima vie exhibits a similar 
appearance, and in such cases fatal perforations 
of the stomach or intestines are not uncommon, 
as has been abundantly proved by anatomical 
examinations. 

The constant use of tobacco irritates the lining 
membrane of the mouth, and often impairs and 
vitiates the sense of taste ; the tongue becomes 



16 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

clumsy, and as soon as the quid or cigar is thrown 
away, the mouth becomes dry, and the man is 
thirsty, consequently those who use much tobacco 
generally require large quantities of drink. Thus 
tantalized, the individual must keep some portion 
of the stimulating weed constantly in his mouth, 
or be continually slaking his burning thirst with 
some kind of liquid. Beer is likely to become a 
favorite beverage ; and when this becomes too 
vapid, ale and the stronger kinds of alcoholic 
drinks are often resorted to, and when at last 
the man becomes a complete sot, he will some- 
times give up his tobacco wholly, and devote 
himself entirely to the use of intoxicating drinks. 
Such has been the brief history of many an un- 
fortunate iqebriate. Tobacco usually produces a 
kind of ptyalism, and the discharge from the 
mouth corresponds in some degree, with the 
quantity of liquor taken into the stomach ; this 
relieves the kidneys, so that the mouth is made to 
perform the vicarious office of the urinary organs. 
When tobacco is seen protruding from the lips, 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 17 

or swelling the cheeks of almost every man and 
boy, in the streets, one might be led to conclude 
that an article so universally employed, with such 
perfect nonchalance, must be not only innocent, 
but a very desirable luxury. But it is not so ; 
tobacco is one of the most pungent and subtle of 
all the vegetable poisons, and even in minute 
doses is capable of destroying life ; yet it is with 
this, as with most other narcotic poisons ; by 
long use, the system becomes able to tolerate it 
to such an extent, that the habitual smoker, or 
chewer, may use in a single day a quantity suffic- 
ient to kill several strong men, unaccustomed to 
its use. 

Usually poisonous vegetables are found to con- 
tain only one active deleterious element, but 
chemical analysis has shown that the tobacco- 
plant contains three extremely poisonous princi- 
ples. One of tiese is a colorless liquid alkaloid 
called Nicotina ; it has an extremely acrid, 
burning taste, and is one of* the most virulent of 
all poisons, resembling in its activity the strong- 



18 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

est preparations of prussic acid. Another of the 
poisonous elements of this plant, is a volatile oil 
called Nicotianin, and the third is an unctuous sub- 
stance called the empyreumatic oil of tobacco. All 
of these are acrid poisons of the most deadly kind, 
and every leaf and fibre of that vegetable con- 
tains a portion of each one of these noxious 
principles, each being so very acrid and malig- 
nant, that it is scarcely possible to tell which is 
most so. The smoker imbibes more of the oil, 
and less of the alkaloid, whilst the chewer takes 
more of the latter and less of the former ; either 
of them in their concentrated state, is quite as 
virulent and deadly in its effects as prussic acid. 
A single drop of either of the oils, put upon the 
tongue of a cat, kills her in two minutes ; if a 
fowl be pricked with a needle that has been dipped 
in the oil of tobacco, it flutters for an instant and 
then dies. A single grain of the alkaloid is suf- 
ficient to kill instantly the strongest mastiff. 

Such is the deadly nature of an article used 
without stint or measure, by all classes and con- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 19 

ditions, the young and the old, rich and poor, 
bond and free. But in order more distinctly 
to understand its toxical properties, we must no- 
tice its effects when taken in moderate doses. 
Like many other poisons, one of the first symp- 
toms that follow its use, is a sensation of heat in 
the throat, often extending to the stomach, fol- 
lowed by a distressing nausea and giddiness, and 
if the dose is considerable, and the person wholly 
unaccustomed to its use, vomiting, purging and 
diuresis follow, attended with a death-like sinking 
at the pit of the stomach, and to these succeed 
languor and relaxation of the muscles, faintness, 
trembling, imperfect vision, anxiety, small weak 
pulse, laborious respiration, or cold clammy sweat 
and sometimes convulsions. These symptoms 
are more or less severe, according to the quantity 
of tobacco taken, and the circumstances and 
the condition of the patent ; they may be of short 
duration, or end in torpor and death. 

Similar effects often follow the external use cf 
tobacco, and in numerous instances, death has 



20 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

been produced by its topical application ; and 
when we look upon this array of distressing symp- 
toms, and at the same time consider that the taste 
of the article is always extremely nauseous to 
all who are unaccustomed to its use, we are led 
to wonder how the article comes to be so exten- 
sively employed. It is with this as with most 
other pernicious practices • the first beginnings 
are generally small, and often casual. The habit 
is acquired by degrees, until at length the system 
is brought into a condition to tolerate the noxious 
material, and when no more than the accustomed 
quantity is taken, none of the deleterious effects 
are experienced. It does not however by that 
means become innocent, or cease to injure the 
animal economy, but it comes to work in disguise, 
and whilst the mischief is secretly going on in 
some internal organ, the man is beguiled by a 
voluptious sensation excited in the brain. It is so 
with many other poisons ; by long use the system 
ceases to admonish the individual of iheir per- 
nicious tendencies. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 21 

In lower Austria, and some parts of India many 
of the inhabitants are in the daily habit of tak : ng 
arsenic, by smoking or otherwise, and. by long 
use an individual becomes able to consume an 
incredible amount daily, with apparent impunity, 
but the enemy is A\\\ at work secretly, and its 
fatal effects are sure to be developed at last. But 
no rational considerations, or legal restrictions 
have ever been able to suppress this pernicious 
practice in those countries. 

No one can be in the daily habit of smoking, 
or chewing tobacco for any considerable length 
of time, without suffering from its effects. 

For reasons already given, dyspepsia in some 
form or other, is a pretty common attendant on 
those who use much tobacco. In technical lan- 
guage, it may be said, tobacco thins the saliva 
and the secretions of the Live? and Pancreas, 
and acts as a sedative upon the Pneumo gastric 
nerves. The vitiated state of the fluids produces 
an imperfect digestion and assimilation, and 
functional or organic derangements are liable to 



22 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

follow as the consequence. It must be observed 
that tobacco does not operate upon all alike. 
Owing to difference of temperament, age and 
condition, the symptoms that follow its use are 
by no means uniform, therefore what may be 
true in one case may not be so in others, and 
there will necessarily be found many exceptions 
to any general rule that may be laid down. 
With many persons the use of tobacco impairs 
the appetite, and it is often observed that those 
who use it freely eat less than others. This is 
not because tobacco supplies the system with any 
important component principle, but simply be- 
cause it acts as a sedative, deadens the sensibili- 
ty of the nerves, and checks the elimination «bf 
effete matter from the system. Percy, an emi- 
nent French surgeon, says, that tobacco is as 
regularly served out to the French soldier as pro- 
visions, and remarks — " It has doubtless been 
calculated that tobacco hurts the appetite ; and 
to save daily from four to six ounces of bread, 
per man, they furnish him with three farthings' 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 23 

worth of tobacco." It is undoubtedly true that 
the soldier who passes the whole night in the 
trenches of a beleaguered city, with only a dis- 
tant and uncertain prospect of breakfast in the 
morning — or the care-worn sailor contending 
with the elements in a storm — or the exhausted 
laborer after a day of unusual anxiety and fa- 
tigue, may derive a temporary solace from a 
cigar ; but the relief is only temporary and se- 
ductive ; such as a glass of hot sling, or even a 
pill of opium would impart — no permanent ele- 
ment is supplied to the system — no organ or tis- 
sue is repaired, or restored — not a particle is ad- 
ded to compensate for the losses which the body 
has sustained ; its cravings are only staunched 
during the operation of the beguiling sedative, 
to return with augmented severity as soon as 
that has passed away. 

Sir Benjamin Brodie of London, says : " A 
certain quantity of the oil of tobacco must be 
always circulating in the blood of an habitual 
smoker ; and when a single drop of this oil will 



24 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

kill a cat in the course of a few minutes, we 
cannot suppose that its effects upon the human 
system can be merely negative." It is not neces- 
sary to analyze the blood to show that it contains 
the oil of tobacco, as it is abundantly proved by 
the strong empyreumatic odor of the smoker's 
breath. Dr. Brodie has long been known as one 
of the most eminent English surgeons, and in a* 
recent communication to the London Times, he 
says : u From the best observations which I have 
been able to make on the subject, I am led to be- 
lieve that there are very few who use tobacco 
and do not suffer harm from it to a greater or less 
extent. The earliest symptoms are manifested 
in the derangement of the nervous system. A 
large proportion of habitual smokers are rendered 
lazy and listless, indisposed to bodily and incapa- 
ble of much mental exertion. Others suffer from 
depression of the spirits, amounting to hypochon- 
driasis, which smoking relieves for a time, though 
it aggravates the evil afterwards. Occasionally 
there is a general nervous excitability, which 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 25 

though very much less in degree partakes of the 
nature of Delirium Tremens of drunkards." 
Again, the same author says . " It would be easy 
for me to refer to other symptoms indicating 
the deficient power of the nervous system to 
which smokers are liable ; but it is unnecessary 
for me to do so ; and, indeed, there are some 
which I would rather leave them to imagine for 
themselves than undertake a description of them 
myself in writing." 

" But the ill effects of tobacco are not con- 
fined to the nervous system. In many instances 
there is a loss of the healthy appetite for food, 
the imperfect state of the digestion being soon 
rendered manifest by the loss of flesh and the 
sallow countenance. It is difficult to say what 
other diseases may not follow the imperfect as- 
similation of food continued during a long period 
of time. So many causes are in operation in 
the human body which may tend to a greater or 
* less degree, to th e production of organic changes 
in it, that it is only in some instances we can 



2& TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

venture to pronounce as to the precise manner in 
which a disease that proves mortal has originated. 
From cases, however, that have fallen under my 
own observation, and from a consideration of all 
the circumstances, I cannot entertain a doubt that 
if we could obtain accurate statistics on the sub- 
ject, we should find that the value of life in invet- 
erate smokers is considerably below the average. 
Nor is this opinion in any degree contradicted by 
the fact that there are individuals who, in spite of 
the inhalation of tobacco smoke, live to be old, 
and without any material derangement of the 
health ; analogous exceptions to the general rule 
being met with in the cases of those who have 
indulged too freely in the use of spirituous and 
fermented liquors. In the early part of the pres- 
ent century, tobacco smoking was wholly con- 
fined to what are commonly called the lower 
grades of society. It was only every now and 
then that any one who wished to be considered 
as a gentlemen, was addicted to it. But since 
the war on the Spanish Peninsula, and the con- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 27 

sequent substitution of the cigar for the tobacco- 
pipe, the case has been entirely altered. The 
greatest smokers at the present time are to be 
found, not among those who live by their bodily 
labor, but among those who are more advantage- 
ously situated, who have better opportunities of 
education, and of when we have a right to ex- 
pect that they should constitute the most intelli- 
gent and thoughtful members of the community. 
Nor is the practice confined to grown-up men. 
Boys, even at the best schools, get the habit of 
smoking, because they think it manly and fash- 
ionable to do so ; not unfrequently because they 
have the example set them by their tutors, and 
partly because their is no friendly voice to warn 
them as to the special ill consequences to which 
it may give rise where the process of growth is 
not yet completed, and the organs are not yet 
fully developed." 

u The foregoing observations relate to the hab- 
it of smoking as it exists among us at the pres- 
ent time. But a still graver question remains to 



28 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

be considered. What will be the result if this 
habit be continued by future generations ? It is 
but too true that the sins of the fathers are visit- 
ed upon their children and their children's chil- 
dren. We may here take warning from the fate 
of the Red Indians of America. An intelligent 
American physician gives the following explana- 
tion of the gradual extinction of this remarkable 
people : — One generation of them became addict- 
ed to the use of the fire-water. They have a 
degenerate and comparatively imbecile progen- 
cy, who indulge in the same vicious habit with 
their parents. Their progeny is still more degen- 
erate, and after a very few generations the race 
ceases altogether. We may also take warning 
from the history of another nation, who some 
few centuries ago, while following the banners 
of Sol) man the Magnificent, were the terror of 
Christendom, but who, since then, having be- 
come more addicted to tobacco-smoking than any 
of the European nations, are now the lazy and 
lethargic Turks, held in contempt by all civilized 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 29 

communities. In thus placing together the con- 
sequences of intemperance in the use of alcohol 
and that in the use of tobacco, I should be sorry 
to be misunderstood as regarding these two kinds 
of intemperance to be in an equal degree per- 
nicious and degrading. The inveterate tobacco- 
smoker may be stupid and lazy, and the habit to 
which he is addicted may gradually tend to 
shorten his life and deteriorate his offspring, but 
the dram-drinker is quarrelsome, mischevous and 
often criminal. It is under the influence of gin 
that the burglar and murderer become fitted for 
the task they have undertaken. The best thing 
that can be said of dram-drinking is, that it in- 
duces disease, which carries the poor wretch pre- 
maturely to the grave, and .rids the world of the 
nuisance. But, unfortunately, in this, as in many 
other cases, what is wanting in quality is made 
up in quantity. There are checks on one of these 
evil habits which there are not on the other. The 
dram-drinker, or, to use a more general term, 
the drunkard, is held to be a noxious animal, 



30 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

He is an outcast from all decent society, while 
there is no such exclusion for the most assiduous 
smoker.' ' 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

Tobacco induces or hurries on Consumption and Haemop- 
tysis — It poisons the blood — Kills leeches, bugs, etc. — 
Intoxicates the nursing infant — Causes nervous affec- 
tions, Amaurosis, Deafness, etc — Weakens the recu- 
perative powers. — Use of long pipes. — Tobacco Dyspep- 
sia. — The use of tobacco no protection against conta- 
gious diseases. — Death from sleeping in a room with 
tobacco. 

A recent American writer, of much experi- 
ence, says : " To those predisposed to consump- 
tion, the ptylism which tobacco produces, hurries 
on the disease.' ' And this is undoubtedly true in 
many instances. Latent tubercles may some- 
times remain undeveloped for a long time, per- 
haps during the whole natural life of the individ- 
ual, unless they are roused into action by some 



32 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

morbid agent ; the acrid and poisonous proper- 
ties of tobacco-smoke, tend to irritate and inflame 
the extremely delicate texture of this important 
organ, and the result is confirmed and incurable 
Phthisis. 

If the throat of almost anv constant smoker 
be examined, it will be found red, and the lining 
membrane more or less thickened and swoleri, 
the veins are turged, and frequent patches of mu- 
cous are visible ; in time the inflammation ex- 
tends to the larynx, and along the trachea to the 
bronchia; the voice becomes more or less changed 
and often an uneasy sensation is felt beneath the 
pectoral muscles, sometimes on one side, and 
sometimes on the other ; a slight cough super- 
venes — the seeds of disease have been quickened 
into life, and all the train of morbid symptoms 
incident to consumption, are likely to^ follow. 
When we see a lean hectic smoking and spitting 
continually, we say, that man is going to his long 
home by steam. 

Hcemoptysis is often either induced or aggra- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 33 

vated by smoking. The hot steam of burning to- 
bacco, when taken into the lungs produces conges- 
tion, and to relieve this, blood is discharged into the 
pulmonary follicles to be brought up by coughing, 
and a bloody expectoration follows. This is one 
way in which consumption is brought on. 

The heart of an old smoker is generally a 
rickety concern ; its action is irregular and im- 
perfect ; it moves, and then stops to rest, shakes 
and throbs, and goes on again like some over- 
loaded, worn-out donkey. The nervous system 
becomes deranged, the muscles loose their tone, 
and a kind of chronic delirium tremens follows ; 
the man must smoke in the evening before he re- 
tires or he cannot sleep during the night ; and 
when he wakes in the morning the first thing he 
looks for is his filthy tobacco ; without it he is ir- 
ritable, irresolute and vapid ; he looks to his pipe 
or cigar for his strength, his courage, his wisdom 
and his happiness. Poor man ! tobacco is the 
spirit, the life and soul of his crazy carcass — 
without it he is most wretched. 



34 tobacco^what rr IS 

Among other mental affections, insanity is some- 
times induced by the use of tobacco. In a paper 
drawn up by the celebrated female philanthro- 
pist, Miss Dix, she says : " In the Massachusetts 
State Hospital, in 1843, there were eight cases of 
insanity, produced by the abuse of tobacco. " 
Since that time the number of insane in that 
State has greatly increased ; instead of one small 
State Hospital, there are now three large ones, 
constantly crowded with unfortunate inmates, and 
if the proportion that obtained at that time still 
exists, at the present time, the whole number in 
that State who have been made insane by tobacco 
may not be loss than fifty. 

The noxious principles of tobacco enter into 
the circulation, so that the blood of every one 
who uses it freely, either by smoking or chewing, 
becomes constantly saturated with its poisonous 
elements. Dr. Pidduck, physician to St. Giles's 
-dispensary, says : u That during sixteen years 
practice in that institution, he ascertained the ex- 
traordinary fact, that leeches were killed instantly 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 35 

by the blood of the smokers, so suddenly that 
they dropped off dead as soon as they began to 
draw the blood." He also, says : " That fleas and 
bugs, whose bites on children were as thick as 
measles, rarely or never attacked the smoking 
parent." It is said also, that the Arabs and 
Bedouins, who are constant smokers, are never 
troubled with such insects, although they con- 
stantly swarm in the Arab tents. 

When the mother of a nursing child smokes, 
her infant is often stupefied by the poison which 
it receives from the maternal breast. By such 
means, the blood becomes poisoned, and an un- 
happy, and perhaps a durable impression is made 
upon the whole system, at a tender $ge. 

If the smoker have any sore upon his lips or 
tongue, the poison of tobacco is likely to convert 
it into a cancer, or some other obstinate affec- 
tion. When the system has become charged 
with the elementary principles of tobacco, its re- 
cuperative power is diminished, and wounds 
made upon such individuals do not heal as readily 



36 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

as on others ; the whole nervous system becomes 
deranged, and tremblings, Angina Pectoris, pal- 
pitation of the heart, fainting-fits, paralysis, and 
almost every other nervous affection is liable to 
follow. Sedentary persons, mechanics, and oth- 
ers, who spend much of their time within doors, 
are liable to suffer more in this way than others; 
shut up in confined apartments, they are often 
obliged to breathe the polluted element over and 
over again. " 

Partial or total blindness is often occasioned by 
the use of tobacco. Inveterate smokers almost 
always suffer from impaired vision ; sometimes 
only one eye, and sometimes both suffer. The 
free and long continued use of tobacco is pretty 
sure to impair or derange the optic nerves, and 
produce defective vision of some sort. Of these 
facts medical statistics furnish abundant proof, 
and a little attention to the subject might con- 
vince almost any one of the truth of the prop- 
osition. The following is a case in point, re- 
ported by Dr. John Renton of London. 



AND WHAT If DOES. 37 

" J, W. 5 a coach builder, upwards of fifty 
years of age, had smoked for thirty years, gen- 
erally two ounces of tobacco a week, when he 
became so blind as to be unable to work, or even 
walk through a crowded street. He applied to 
an eye dispensary, where the medical man, who 
is considered a good oculist, told him that he la- 
bored under amaurosis, and prescribed accord- 
ingly. After following his treatment for some 
time, and finding himself no better, he visited a 
neighboring city, and consulted another oculist, 
who instantly detected tobacco to be the cause of 
his blindness, as if the obnoxious stench of the 
weed had led him at once to this conclusion. J. 
W. instantly " threw away tobacco for ever," 
visited a relative in the Highlands, where in a 
short time his vision gradually returned, became 
clear, and enabled him to return to his business 
quite cured. It is now six years since he recov- 
ered, and he now can read a small printed book 
without glasses. He says his health is much im- 
proved since he gave up the pernicious weed." 



38 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

Numerous cases of confirmed and incurable 
amaurosis have arisen from the same cause, as 
the records of ophthalmic infirmaries show ; and 
the sense of hearing is often seriously impaired 
by the same means. The auditory nerves by be- 
ing long subject to the deading influence of to- 
bacco, loose their tone and become paralized and 
a partial deafness must follow. 

With many, smoking appears to be an auto- 
matic performance, having little or no connection 
with thought or reason ; it seems a kind of quasi- 
mechanical process, and consists in filling the 
lungs with a hot mixture of gaseous carbon, car- 
bonic acid, and the pungent oils and alkaloid of 
tobacco, diluted with a portion of common air. 
Every inspiration- of tobacco smoke is charged 
with all these deadly agents, and a portion of 
each is retained and enters the circulation to poi- 
son the blood, derange the animal economy, and 
impair and deprave the intellect. Can any one 
imagine that the extremely delicate membrane 
which lines the air-tubes, with its sensative ner- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 39 

vous fillaments, can long endure such roasting 
and fumigation without injury. One would sup- 
pose that such treatment would be sufficient to 
convert the softest tissue into rigid sole leather — 
the human chest is transformed into a smoke- 
house, and if the lungs are not converted into 
bacon, it is because the living principle resists 
the action of the petrifying elements. 

The injury to the lungs from hot fumes of to- 
bacco, being so obvious, human ingenuity was 
long ago put upon the rack to devise means to 
avoid the mischief without relinquishing the habit; 
this led to the use of the very long pipe, in order 
to allow the smoke to cool before reaching the 
lungs ; but the benefit derived from this expedi- 
ent was found to be trifling, and as the use of 
such pipes was impracticable in common life, the 
plan was never extensively adopted, and men 
choose to ignore the danger rather than relin- 
quish the pernicious practice. 

Some smoke to cure themselves of asthma, and 
sometimes a temporary benefit has been obtained 



40 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

from the narcotism thereby induced, but hundreds 
have become asthmatic from the habitual use of 
tobacco, for one that has been permanently cured 
by that means. 

When we look around amongst our acquaint- 
ances, we often see many professional men and 
others of sedentary habits, who complain of dys- 
pepsia, and a great number of almost indiscriba- 
ble bodily ills, which mar their happiness and 
abridge their usefulness. They often repine at 
their hard fortune, and seem to blame the stars 
for their perverse constitutions ; they wonder 
why they cannot eat and drink, and exercise as 
they see others do ; they cannot imagine what 
can be the cause of all their discomfort. Their 
physician tells them that it is dyspepsia^ and pre- 
scribes a great variety of ant-acids, tonics, laxa- 
tives and carminatives, and as a last resort, a jour- 
ney to some watering place — to the sea-shore, or 
to some spring, or mountain in the interior. But 
the benefit derived from these measures is often 
imperfect, and of short duration, and more im- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 41 

aginary than real. After all this maneuvering 
the prime cause of all the mischief has been 
overlooked ; it is the tobacco-worm that is gnaw- 
ing their vitals, creeping over their brains, and 
along the spinal cord ; and if such invalids could 
be persuaded instantly to rid themselves forever 
of this source of so many troubles, they 
would, in a majority of cases, be cured with- 
out medicines, or journeys. Dr. Chipman of 
London, speaking of cases of this kind, says : 
M Such cases have generally been called dyspep- 
sia, and have been drugged and dieted, or sent 
off on foreign travel, carrying in their waistcoat 
pockets the Pandora's box of all their woes." 

Many have supposed that the use of tobacco 
was a protection against contagious diseases, but 
this is a most egregious mistake. The statis- 
tics of Cholera, Typhoid Fever, Epidemic Dys- 
entary, and Small Pox, prove that those who use 
tobacco freely, like those who use spirituous li- 
quors are more liable than others to be attacked 
by such diseases, and less likely to recover. Dr. 



42 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

J. H. Fenn of London says : u Tobacco has the 
effect of relaxing the mucous membranes, and 
diminishing the vital force, and is very apt to pro- 
duce, or predispose, to diarrhoea, and intestinal 
lesions." Lizars of the Royal Infirmary of Ed- 
inburgh assures us that he has uniformly found 
that persons addicted to the use of tobacco were 
more liable to attacks of Cholera, and other dan- 
gerous epidemics than those who were free from 
the habit, and when attacked were less liable to 
recover. The same author observes : " I have 
invariably found that patients addicted to tobacco- 
smoking were in spirit cowardly, and deficient in 
manly fortitude to undergo any surgical opera- 
tion." It is well ascertained that those who use 
much tobacco possess less physical and intellect- 
ual vigor than others who do not use it, and it is 
said that prize-fighters, boat-racers and pugilists, 

never use it whilst they are training nor on the 
day of contest. 

All who are engaged either in cultivating, cur- 
ing or manufacturing tobacco, are more or bss 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 43 

annoyed and injured by it. To all new beginners 
the business is extremely disagreable, and dis- 
tressing. The subtle poison which the plant con- 
stantly emits irritates the eyes, offends the olfac- 
tories, stifles the breath, nauseates the stomach, 
and bewilders the brain ; these affections are so 
many monitors which declare in language as 
plain as mute nature can speak, that this is one 
of those forbidden things which should be avoided^ 
Like the Porcupine, it will injure no one who 
keeps at a proper distance. It is in vain to say that 
because tobacco, alcohol, hemlock, deadly night- 
shade, and numerous other noxious things exist, 
they must be intended to answer some good pur- 
pose ; the designs of our Creator in all such things 
are inscrutable and past finding out ; fevers, small 
pox, dysentery, scarlet fever, and every other 
disease which preys upon the human frame has 
undoubtedly been ordered for some great, and 
wise purpose ; but we are admonished to avoid 
them whenever we can. Those who by long 
use become acclimated, and able to work upon 



44 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

tobacco with apparent impunity, are nevertheless 
pretty sure to suffer from its deleterious effects. 
The complexion becomes of a dirty yellow, the 
cheeks fall in, the limbs become attenuated and 
shriveled, the whole frame emaciated, and the 
whole system, fluids and solids, becomes saturated 
with the poisonous elements ; which like a cor- 
roding canker are continually eating away the 
threads of life, until at length the vital principle 
can endure no longer, and the individual dies pre- 
maturely. Not long ago, the little daughter of a 
tobacco merchant died suddenly in frightful con- 
vulsions in consequence of having slept in a cham- 
ber in which a large quantity of tobacco was 
stored. 



AND WHAT IT DOES, 45 



CHAPTER IT. 

Effects of tobacco upon the mind. — Men of strong intellects 
have seldom made use of tobacco. — Anecdote of Napo- 
leon Bonapart. — Tobacco debilitates and depraves the 
intellect. — Quotations from Dickens, Adam Clark, Wes- 
ley, Drs. Solly, Abernethy, Carlyon, and Johnson. — 
Amount consumed in Great Britain in a single year. — 
Extracts from Lizars. 

But after all that may be said of the prejudicial 
effcts of tobacco upon the animal system, its in- 
fluence upon the intellectual and moral faculties 
is still more deplorable. These effects must of 
course vary with the quantity consumed, the man- 
ner of using it, the age, condition and circum- 
stances of the individual, but it is seldom innocent 
under any circumstances, and is often attended 
&y the most lamentable consequences. The sys- 



46 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

tern may sometimes withstand, or ward off for a 
time at least, the morbid impressions made upon 
the animal economy, but the stimulus of tobacco 
never fails to affect the brain and nervous system, ■ 
and it is solely on this account that it is used. 
Tobacco is a stupefying narcotic ; the in- 
dividual takes it because it creates a plea- 
surable sensation ; be puffs away at his pipe or 
cigar as. though he was drawing from the very 
fountain of bliss — -the brain becomes more or 
less clouded and the intellectual powers pass into 
.a dormant state. This condition is unfavorable 
to mental exertion — the mind is in a state of 
dreamy repose so long as the stimulus lasts, and 
when that is discontinued it sinks into a state of 
relapse, and in process of time its powers become 
permanently enfeebled and depraved. History, 
experiance, and common observation, confirm the 
truth of this remark. Great thinkers have seldom 
used much tobacco, and many have left their 
testimony, as well as their example against it. 
The sages and philosophers in ancient times cer- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 47 

tainly never used it because its discovery is of 
more recent date, and during the last two or 
three hundred years very few if any who have, 
been eminent for their intellectual powers have 
used tobacco. Dr. Franklin, and many others, 
have left their strong testimony against it. 

It is said that Bonapart once attempted to use 
a very beautiful pipe presented to him by a Turk- 
ish embassador ; after one inhalation he cried : 
" Take away this abomination ! Oh, the swine ! — 
my stomach turns ! " He declared the habit was 
only fit to amuse sluggards. It would add greatly 
to the interest, honor, and usefulness of thousands 
of American young men if they would imitate 
the noble example of the first Napoleon, and 
throw away the pipe or cigar forever. An able 
writer upon the Crimean war gives it as his 
settled conviction that the principle reason why 
the Russians lost so many battles was that their 
soldiers were generally stupefied with tobaeco 
and raki. 

The London Globe says : " That dividing the 



48 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

young men of the Polytecnic school in Paris into 
two groups — the smokers and non-smokers — the 
former always much excel the latter at every 
examination." Dickens says that many students 
attending the American Colleges destroy their 
physical, intellectual, and moral powers by the 
use of tobacco, and are thereby rendered unable 
to proceed with their studies. 

Two of the most eminent divines of the Metho- 
dist church, viz : the celebrated Wesley and Dr. 
Adam Clark, exerted themselves to keep their 
denominations free from the use of this stupefy- 
ing, and as they thought demoralizing agent. 

Dr. Solly, a very eminent lecturer at St. Thom- 
as's Hospital, addressing his class upon paralysis 
said: " I know of no single vice which does so 
much harm as smoking. It is a snare and delu- 
sion. It soothes the excited nervous system at 
the time, to render it more irritable, and more 
feeble ultimately. I can always distinguish a 
man who smokes much by his complexion." 
Again he says : " The more I think of the tobac- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 49 

co question, the more it haunts me. I feel that I 
cannot do justice to its importance, but am anx- 
ious to do something. Every day the subject is 
forced upon my mind. I scarcely meet a friend 
or patient who does not bear testimony to the mis- 
chief of smoking." And again he says : " Look 
at the pale face, imperfect development, and de- 
ficient muscular power of the inhabitants of un- 
healthy districts — they live on, but with only 
half the proper attributes of life. So it is with the 
habitual smoker — his system becomes saturated 
with the poison." 

During more than twenty years Dr. Solly held 
the office of medical examiner of four of the 
largest life insurance companies in Great Britain, 
every applicant was strictly examined as to his 
use of tobacco, and those who were found to use 
it freely were either refused, or subjected to a 
higher premium on that account. 

Dr. Abernethy, one of the most eminent physi- 
cians that Great Britain has ever produced, used 
to say : l< Snuff fuddles the nose ; but the fumes 



50 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

of tobacco possess a power to stupefy all the 
senses, and all the faculties, by slow but enduring 
intoxication, into dull obliviousness." 

Dr. Carlyon, a correct observer of men and 
things writes as follows : " W'hat can be more 
deleterious than tobacco? Many an honest Deuts- 
cher have I seen smoking himself into the grave! 
Rauch — Rauch — immer Rauch ! the counte- 
nance pale and haggard ; the frame emaciated ; 
the propensity to smoke irrisistable ! " 

The same author says : " I recollect reading 
the address of a professor in some American uni- 
versity, to his pupils, on the bad effects of tobacco. 
This address, sensible and spirited, seemed to 
come from the professor's very heart. He de- 
precated, in the most forcible manner, the prac- 
tice of smoking, which had been recently taken 
up, and said : "That prior to the period when 
pipes were to be seen in the mouth of every stu- 
dent, the youth of the university were as different 
in their looks from the individuals with whom he 
was surrounded, as health from disease.," 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 51 

The following is an extract from an article 
which appeard in the London Laneet June 31st, 
1857, from the pen of Dr. Johnson. 

" The quantity of this poisonous weed entered 
for home consumption, in the eleven months end- 
ing November, 1856, was 29,776,082 lbs. The 
deleterious effects which this enormous amount 
of tobacco produced upon its victims, both phy- 
sically, mentally, and morally, admits of no pos- 
sible calculation/' 

It appears to be a point well established that 
trie free and long continued use of tobacco in any 
form weakens the intellect ; by degrees the mind 
looses its power to prolong an investigation, or 
solve a difficult problem ; its conceptions are con- 
fused and indistinct — like a bird which has shed 
its pinions, its exercises are limited to its own 
narrow precinct. 

Professor Lizars in his work entitled, u To- 
bacco, its use and abuse," says: *' By its so 
general consumption we must become changed in 
both corporal and mental faculties — we cannGt 



52 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

fail to be enfeebled in body and mind, and be- 
come a deteriorated race." Again he says : 
" Young men who are in the habit of putting an 
enemy in their mouth to steal away their brains, 
do not become aware of these facts until it some- 
times becomes too late." 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 53 



CHAPTER V. 

Smoking worse than Snuffing or Chewing. — Cigars worse 
than Pipes. — Snuffing nearly given up. — The earlier 
in life tobacco is used, the worse its effects. — Smoking 
a nuisance. — The cost of tobacco considered. — Danger 
from fires. 

In the ordinary manner of snuffing, chewing, 
and smoking, the latter method is undoubtedly 
the most pernicious. As we have said before, 
the smoker takes into his lungs hot gasseous car- 
bon, free carbonic acid — two poisonous oils — and 
an alkaloid, mixed up with a portion of atmos- 
pheric air. In smoking about a quarter of an 
ounce of tobacco, two grains of the poison are 
taken into the mouth. This would kill any one 
in a very short time if most of it was not imme- 
diately thrown out by expiration, so that the act 



54 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

of smoking consists in inhaling poison, and throw- 
ing a part of it out again. There are several 
reasons why the cigar is w r orse than the pipe : the 
large, and loose caliber of the cigar allows the 
smoke to pass freely through it, whilst the pipe- 
stem with its stinted foramina will only allow a 
very small stream to pass through it ; so that the 
cigar smoker takes his etherial sedative much 
faster than one who uses an ordinary pipe. 

Besides, the tobacco burns much slower in a 
pipe, and if the stem is long, the place of com- 
bustion and heat is farther off; when a cigar is 
used the filthy tobacco comes in contact with the 
lips, teeth, and gums, and sometimes occasions 
cancer of the lips or tongue ; the records of 
American and European Hospitals show that 
great numbers have died by such means. A to- 
bacco cancer is the most incurable of all affections 
of the mouth. 

The chewer does not get the empyreumatic oil 
which is evolved by the combustion of a cigar, 
but he gets the alkaloid, and a pungent volatile 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 55 

oil. A portion of these must necessarily be ab- 
sorbed by the membrane that lines the mouth and 
fauces, and more or less of the same poisonous 
materials will unavoidably get into the stomach, 
and produce a train of mischievous consequences 
which have been before alluded to. 

SnufF-taking, once so common with both sexes, 
is now nearly abandoned, so that it is unnecessary 
to say much about it here. As usually practiced 
this method of using tobacco is undoubtedly the 
least injurious of the three,, but it is by no means 
free from serious objections, besides being a most 
filthy and disgusting habit ; but the good sense 
of the gentler sex has pronounced an irreversable 
decree against'it, and it will soon be known only 
in history. 

If the tobacco smoker, like the rum drinker 
swallowed all the poison himself without troubling 
others with it, his associates would have less rea- 
son to complain — hut this- is not the case ; those 
who accompany him are compelled to partake 
with him, a halo of etherial tobacco surrounds 



56 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

him — rooms in public houses, and even the 
streets and lanes of cities and villages are often 
more or less filled with the noxious effluvia — the 
common air becomes charged with it, and if this 
atrocious offence was not an universal practice — 
if only some itinerant smoker occasionally com- 
mitted this outrage upon public health and com- 
mon decency, he would be speedily, and severely 
punished, and regarded by the community as a 
felo de se. 

It is obvious that some constitutions tolerate 
tobacco better than others, and it is also certain 
that it does not injure the full-fed man, who 
smokes only after taking a hearty meal, as much 
as it does those who eat but little, and often smoke 
upon an empty stomach. To commence the day 
with tobacco before breakfast is certainly a very 
bad beginning. But in general, the earlier in life 
the habit is commenced, the more pernicious are 
its consequences. In youth the whole material 
frame is tender and plastic ; alive to every agen- 
cy, and yielding to the softest touch. Tobacco 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 57 

checks nutrition, and prevents the full develop- 
ment of the organs, and by stimulating some por- 
tion of the system at the expense of some other 
part, deformity is produced. He who commences 
the free use of tobacco very early in life prepares 
the way to become a dwarf. Has any one ever 
seen a person of such habits who was not diminu- 
tive in size and a dunce in intellect? 

One might suppose, that the filthiness of the 
habit would make it everywhere sufficiently odi- 
ous to banish it forever from civilized life, but it 
is not so : the power of the appetite bids defiance 
to all restraints, and triumphs over all civil, re- 
ligious and social proprieties. The bed, every 
article of apparel, his gloves and handkerchief, 
and even the love letters of a confirmed smoker 
are scented with tobacco. 

The man who chews much tobacco within 
doors has a constant demand for a spittoon, which 
is always a most disgusting and sickening object. 
When he goes abroad the first thing he looks for 
when he enters your sitting-room is the spittoon, 



58 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

this is a sine qua non with him, and if he does not 
find it he must have recourse to the door fre- 
quently, or raise a window to discharge his filthy- 
tobacco juice, which if he should swallow would 
poison, even him. Having a toad, or quid, no 
matter which, in his mouth, his articulation often 
becomes drawling and indistinct. And when one 
is doomed to live in the same house, eat at the 
same table, sleep in the same room, and perhaps 
in the same bed, with one who daily eats, or 
smokes the nauceous weed, and be compelled to 
inhale the poison second-handed, the abominatidh 
is complete ; and the female who has the cour- 
age and the patience to endure all this for a life- 
time, better deserves a pension than many a sol- 
dier. 

"When the tenant of some narrow cottage 
smokes, as is often the case, by his own fireside, 
the whole apartment becomes filled and saturated 
with the noxious aura, and every member of that 
family is compelled to partake of the etherial poi- 
son. Tobacco smoke is always extremely ofFen- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 59 

sive to all who are unaccustomed to it, but by de- 
grees the family become acclimated — they are 
no longer annoyed by the choke-damp that sur- 
rounds them, but breathe it over, and over again, 
without complaining, and at length some are 
found to love the giddy sensation which it pro- 
duces; so that the inveterate smoker not only 
fuddles his own brain, but intoxicates the whole 
family at the same time — the little boy soon 
learns to imitate the example set before him, he 
looks upon the cigar as the smaller child does 
upon a roll of candy, as the source of unalloyed 
pleasure, and becomes impatient to put it to his 
lips. The more he smokes the more he wants 
to smoke, until the desire for the inebriating stim- 
ulus becomes almost irresistable ; and to appease 
this artificial craving some inebriating beverage 
is often resorted to, and habits of intemperance 
follow as legitimate consequences. Such is the 
early history of many an irreclaimable inebriate. 
The cost of tobacco, though the least of all the 
evils that follow in this murky train, is not an- 



60 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

unimportant item. Suppose a lad to commence 
smoking at the age of fifteen, and to use on an 
average three cigars per day, at the cost of two 
cents each, in this way he would expend in one 
year nearly twenty two dollars; in twenty five 
years the aggregate of his annual expenditures 
for tobacco, with the interest, would amount to 
'more than one thousand dollars. This is not an 
extravagant calculation : many a young man ex- 
pends in this way much more than we have sup- 
posed. But if only one cigar a day is used, the 
whole expense in twenty five years with interest 
would not be less than three or four hundred dol- 
lars. Now if we should look about us we might find 
many a man, poor, old, and stupid, without house 
or home of his own, who has all his life used to- 
bacco, and actually expended in that way a jum 
sufficient to have provided him and his family a 
good home in his old age. It is obvious that all 
the money expended for tobacco is so much lost, 
and as almost every one expends more or less in 
his way a large portion of the people are made 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 61 

poorer by it. The whole sum expended annually 
in that way by some individuals is almost in- 
creditable. We are assured that there are now 
about town, young men, not yet thirty years of 
age, who have already expended the full amount 
of one thousand dollars in tobacco. One indi- 
vidual of undoubted veracity, who purchased his 
cigars at wholesale, informed us that in a single 
year, he had " used up," two thousand of the 
best cigars. The cost of these at the saloon price 
would not be less than one hundred dollars. If 
all the small change that is daily spent for cigars 
was deposited in Saving Banks, they would soon 
become the richest institutions in the country. 

There is another pecuniary consideration con- 
nected with the use of tobacco ; it is this : most 
smokers carry friction matches in their pockets, 
in consequence of which, either by accident or 
design, many fires have been set, and many 
buildings burned, and it is obvious that the lives 
and interests of individuals and communities are 
less safe on this account. Insurance companies 



62 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

suffer more or less every year from this cause. 
It is said that some of the largest English Life 
Insurance companies will not insure inveterate 
smokers on equal terms with others, and if the 
American offices should adopt the same policy it 
would undoubtedly be for their interest, and 
might operate as a warning upon all. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 63 



CHAPTER VI. 

Does tobacco shorten life ? An extract, etc. 

Some are ready to contend that tobacco can 
have no tendency to shorten life because there 
are many old persons who use it. This is the 
drunkards standing argument, and if it proved 
anything it would prove quite too much : if we 
are to conclude that tobacco is harmless because 
old men are found who use it, then by the same 
course of reasoning we must conclude that intoxi- 
cating liquors are harmless because drunkards 
sometimes live to old age ; and by the same rule it 
might be shown that nobody had been slain or 
wounded in battle because some old soldiers still 
survive. Out of fifty persons bitten by a mad dog 



64 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

several may escape the hydrophobia, but such rare 
instances do not show that there is no danger from 
the bites of rabid animals. Peculiarity of tempera- 
ment or idiosyncrasy may enable some constitu- 
tions to withstand for many years the pernicious 
effects of a virulent poison, but such exceptions to 
a general rule do not prove that poisons are harm- 
less A moments' reflection will show that this 
kind of reasoning is wholly fallacious. Most of 
those who have used tobacco and lived to a great 
age, used it sparingly— they only smoked or 
chewed a little — in many cases the habit was not 
contracted until late in life, and then was often 
resorted to as a remedy for some bodily infirmity. 
It should also be remembered that there is a wide 
difference between the past and the present gen- 
erations — our fathers and grandfathers were 
men of giant frames and iron constitutions, and 
possessed a wonderful power of endurance — 
they fed upon plain food, and lived much in the 
open air — they were inured to hardships, and 
labored incessantly. Physically and mentally 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 65 

they were heroes ; they lived, labored, and fought, 
despite all the evils and disadvantages with which 
they had to contend ; they were made of firmer 
stuff than most of the present generation, and 
yet, we have no reason to suppose that tobacco 
had no pernicious effect upon them — the proof of 
its poisonous effects are coeval with its history — 
it was ever a "most virulent poison, and although 
its operations as such may not have been always 
noticed, we are well assured that they must have 
transpired in some form or other. We have said 
that one of the effects of tobacco is to produce 
paralysis, and trembling of the limbs ; can any 
one show us an old person who has used tobacco 
freely for a long time and yet, is free from such 
affections ? Many a young man who smokes ex- 
cessively is unable to hold his hand still, when 
the stimulus of the tobacco is off, and as the grog- 
drinker resorts to his dram to steady his shaking 
hand, so the inveterate smoker has recourse to 
his pipe or cigar to steady his. 

As has been said before, the most serious mis- 



66 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

chief produced by tobacco arises from its em- 
ployment in youth and early manhood, although 
it cannot be said to be perfectly harmless at any 
age or under any circumstances. The cigar is 
rather a modern invention and adds greatly to 
the mischief produced by tobacco. It is so con- 
venient, so fashionable, so nice and so cheap, that 
every one who desires to enjoy the inebriating 
effects of tobacco can easily obtain it. In making 
a comparison between alcohol and tobacco, a 
single consideration shows that the latter has 
greatly the advantage. Drinking is considered 
disgraceful ; the tipler must be sly ; public opinion 
is against all common drinkers, and therefore 
many abstain from liquor for their credits sake ; 
but the case is very different with smoking : ci- 
gars are fashionable in all grades of society, in 
the highest and the lowest, all the difference be- 
ing in the cost of the article, and no one is ever 
disparaged because he smokes, even though he 
have a pipe or cigar in his mouth at all hours 
of the day except at meal time ; and until public 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 67 

opinion can be brought to aid in correcting the 
evil, the friends of reform must labor under great 
disadvantage. 

The following is an extract from an article 
written by a physician of extensive practice in 
London, and published by the British Anti-To- 
bacco Society. 

"1. Smoking weakens the digestive and assim- 
ilating functions, impairs the due elaboration of 
the chyle and of the blood, and prevents a healthy 
nutrition of the several structures of the body. 
Hence result, especially in young persons, an ar- 
rest of the growth of the body ; low stature ; a 
pallid and sallow hue of the surface ; an in- 
sufficient and an unhealthy supply of blood ; weak 
bodily powers; and, in many instances, complete 
emasculation, or inability of procreation. In per- 
sons more advanced in life, these effects, although 
longer in making their appearance, supervene at 
last, and with a celerity in proportion to the ex- 
tent to which this vile habit is carried. 

"2, Smoking generates thirst and vital de- 



68 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

pression ; and to remove these, the use of stimu- 
lating liquors is resorted to, and often carried to a 
most injurious extent. Thus two of the most de- 
basing habits and vices to which human nature 
can be degraded, are indulged in to the injury of 
the individual thus addicted, to the shortening of 
his life, and to the injury and ruin of his offspring, 
if, indeed, he still retain his procreative powers — 
a very doubtful result — and the more doubful 
when both vices are united in one person. . 

" 3. Smoking tobacco weakens the nervous 
powers ; favors a dreamy, imaginative, and im- 
becile state of existence ; produces indolence and 
incapability of manly or continued exertion ; and 
sinks its votary into a state of careless or maudlin 
inactivity and selfish enjoyment of his vice. He 
ultimately becomes partially, but generally para- 
lyzed in mind and body — he is subject to tremors 
and numerous nervous ailments, and has recourse 
to stimulents for their relief. These his vices 
cannot abate, however indulged in, and he ulti- 
mately dies a drivelling idiot, an imbecile para- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 69 

lytic, or a sufferer from internal organic disease, 
at an age many years short of the average dura- 
tion of life." 

Before the pernicious elements of tobacco were 
clearly made known by chemical examinations, 
many became addicted to its use without the least 
suspicion of its pernicious tendency ; and at the 
present time some old men of that description 
are found using it, though very sparingly, com- 
pared with the young men of the present day. 
Refering to such instances an able writer ob- 
serves: " For old men, smoking may be tole- 
rated ; but for young men and boys, it cannot 
be too severely reprobated.' ' 



70 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER VII. 

The use of tobacco impairs the memory. — Anecdote of Dr. 
Franklin. 

The free use of tobacco tends to impair the 
memory. The more one uses, the more he is in- 
jured in this respect. The profound smoker 
passes his time in a kind of dreamy ecstacy ; the 
tide of events seems to sweep by him without 
leaving any durable impressions upon his mind ; 
consequently the habit is a most pernicious one 
for students and scientific men. Many old in- 
veterate smokers appear to remember little or 
nothing but what took place before they began to 
smoke. 

It is said that Sir John Pringle who was in 
Paris with Dr. Franklin, was a great snuff-taker, 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 71 

and was at the same time troubled with trembling 
of the limbs and loss of memory ; observing his 
condition, Dr. Franklin advised him to abandon 
the use of snuff; accordingly he did so, and soon 
his trembling ceased, and his memory improved. 
The bewildering influence of tobacco upon the 
brain impairs the reasoning powers, leads the 
mind to pursue phantoms, and doubtless promotes 
spiritualism, and other mental vagaries. Like 
opium it induces feelings of placid enjoyment, and 
unruffled pleasure, it mellows the passions, and 
soothes the mind into a delightful tranquiity. 
The smoker, as he puffs forth the clouds of mot- 
tled wreaths experiences a kind of apocalypse, 
he becomes inattentive to whatever is taking 
place around him and revels in the regions of 
fancy. The dusky atmosphere in which he be- 
comes enveloped is filled with magic panoramas, 
and he nee<Js but to unbridle his teeming imagi- 
nation to behold cities and villages, lakes and land- 

4 s 

scapes scattered in wild profusian about him. 
The cadences of bewitching music fall gently 



72 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

upon his ear, fragrant blossoms perfume the 
scenery, and gaity and beauty dance around him 
— for a time all is quiet — all is lovely. 

But these are only phantoms of a disordered 
sensorium to be chased away by specters of an 
opposite character as soon as the intoxication has 
passed off. Whilst the individual is thus beguiled 
an unseen enemy is at work within him — per- 
haps slowly, and silently, but surely sapping his 
physical, intellectual, and moral .powers : his 
happiness is only momentary, and a state of lan- 
gor, and stupidity follow ; and to this succed rest- 
lessness, anxiety and depression of spirits — the 
man is moody, and peevish, trembles and stares 
like an idiot — he feels an insatiable longing for 
more tobacco — just another quid, or another puff, 
to waft him again to his etherial paradise. Like 
the song of a syren it delights, whilst it beguiles 
and destroys its victim. It is true that the habit- 
ual smoker who consumes only a limited quantity 
of tobacco daily may not be very conscious of 
such mental elevation ; with such the effect is 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 73 

less in degree and so common as to pass unno- 
ticed by the. individual himself; yet, although 
his mind may not take cognizance of such ordi- 
nary impressions, the material organism will not 
cease to be prejudiciously affected by the introduc- 
tion of the subtle poison ; the senses may be 
steeped in a delightful forgetfulness, but the laws 
of vitality cannot be bribed. 



74 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Other effects of tobacco. — Case reported by Professor 
Chapman. — Opinion of Dr. Wright. — Experiments 
upon dogs. — Argument advanced by the Nashville 
Medical Journal, answered. 

Many persons of a nervous temperament who 
use tobacco freely experience peculiar distress- 
ing sensations at the pit of the stomach. At first 
there may be only a slight epigastric sinking, a 
restlessness and inability to sleep on going to bed, 
then a shock, which is at first slight, is fell in the 
epigastrium ; these shocks occur just as the indi- 
vidual is beginning to doze, he is startled and his 
sleep is broken — after a period of uneasy watch- 
ing, as soon as he begins to sleep the shocks re- 
turn and sleep is frightened away again ; in this 
way the unhappy victim is often tormented dur- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 75 

ing the first part of the night, his sleop is not 
what that of every healthy person should be, 
11 Tired nature's sweet restorer :" but a succession 
of broken slumbero, interrupted by startings and 
disagreeable dreams ; and in some instances symp- 
toms resembling delirium tremens torment the 
unfortunate sufferer in the day time. Dr. Ship- 
man an eminent English physician, says: ' c The 
martyrs themselves little suspect the secret ene- 
my that is sapping the foundations of health and 
life. They have been accustomed to the use of 
tobacco perhaps from childhood ; their grand- 
father, father, and brothers, have used it before 
them ; and they never heard a word spoken in 
disparagement of it, and their own inclination is 
a powerful advocate for the pernicious article. 
Perhaps too, some thoughtless physician may 
have spoken in its favor ; they may however have 
some misgivings as they lie awake night after 
night, taking an inventory of thair wretched feel- 
ings. The only cure for all such harassing, and 
in the end ruinous affections is to throw away 
the tobacco forever." 



76 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

The late Professor Chapman of Philadelphia, 
said, that he was once consulted by a member of 
Congress in the meridian of life, and of a stout 
frame, who told him that from having been one 
of the most healthy and fearless of men, he had 
become u sick all over," and as timid as a girl. 
He could not even present a petition to Congress, 
much less say a word concerning it, although he 
had long been a practising lawyer, and had served 
much in legislative bodies. By any ordinary 
noise he was startled, or thrown into tremulous- 
ness, and was afraid to be alone at night — his 
appetite and digestion were gone — he had pain- 
ful sensations at the pit of the stomach, and ob- 
stinate constipation. During the narrative of his 
sufferings his aspect approached the haggard 
wiidness of mental distemperature. 

On enquiry Dr. Chapman found that his con- 
sumption of tobacco was almost incredible, by 
chewing, snuffing, and smoking, and assured his 
patient that all his misery had been brought on by 
the use of this poisonous weed. The man gave 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 77 

up the use of tobacco immediately, and in a few 
weeks entirely recovered without the aid of any 
medicine. 

Dr. Wright, an eminent English surgeon, says, 
that the effects of tobacco are precisely alike 
upon man and animals, and that in whatever way 
it is administered it enfeebles the action of the 
heart, and acts as a sedative upon the whole 
nervous system. lie tried it upon a number of 
healthy dogs by giving each one a small quantity 
daily mixed with his food. The dogs soon grew 
poor, their limbs became weak and trembling, 
their hair fell off, they became blind, and their 
eyelids sloughed ; and they all finally died, being 
completely emaciated. Now i these dogs had 
taken a much smaller quantity at a time, and that 
only occasionally, they might without doubt have 
lived for a long time, and when finally the^ eied 
no one would have attributed their deaths to 
tobacco. 

Some individuals may use tobacco daily, year 
after year without appearing to suffer from it, and 



78 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

peculiarity of temperament, idiosyncrasy, and 
personal habits, may enable some constitutions to 
resist the action of this subtle poison without suf- 
fering any serious bodily injury, yet it is be- 
lieved that few persons enjoy any such absolute 
immunity; and however lightly some may re- 
gard the effects of tobacco upon the human sys- 
tem, it is certain that its noxious effects have 
never been known to fail when it has been ad- 
ministered to dogs, cats, snakes, bugs or lice. 

It is not certain that no harm is being done be- 
cause none is seen by the common observer ; the 
morbid changes which take place within the sys- 
tem and so often prove fatal are mostly out of 
sight ; and whilst the individual is attending to 
his cvdinary business and thinks himself well, 
some incipient affection is slowly but surely tak- 
ing place in some important organ which may at 
length destroy his life. This is one great reason 
why so large a portion of mankind die so unex- 
pectedly to themselves and their friends. 

'* The young disease that must suMue at length, 

Grows with his growth and strengthens with his strength." 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 79 

And yet the individual may be all unconscious of 
its existence until he is prostrated by it. 

There may have been thousands of instances 
in which none of the evils incident to the use of 
tobacco have been noticed, yet, when it is clearly 
shown that so many physical, mental, and moral 
ills are very liable to be produced by it, and when 
it is acknowledged that its use is never attended 
with any essential benefit, it appears surprising 
to us that any respectable journalists should be so 
regardless of the good of mankind as to contrib- 
ute their mite to the support of a popular evil, 
yet, such is sometimes the case. In order to 
make it appear that tobacco does not often do 
any great harm, a recent writer tells us that 
within what he calls, u the tobacco period," 
Shakspeare, Milton, Bacon and Newton have 
lived, and that within the same period the Lu- 
theran Reformation, the French Revolution, and 
many other great events ha^e transpired ; all this 
is true, and it is true also that within the same 
period the celebrated Dr. Adam Clark, Dr. 



80 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte and a host of other 
men eminent for their talents and their virtues 
have lived and made wonderful discoveries and 
improvements without ever being contaminated 
with this noxious element. 

Again it is true that a very large portion of 
the most eminent men now on the stage of action 
are either entirely free from its use, or, use it 
very sparingly. We know also that until the 
early part of the present century the use of this 
filthy weed was chiefly confined to the low, and 
vulgar. It is unfortunate for the advocates of to- 
bacco that the use of intoxicating liquors has 
greatly increased within this same " tobacco pe- 
riod," and that physical, and moral depravities, 
have also greatly increased during the same 
time ; and any argument that may be advanced 
in favor o? the use of tobacco during the period 
in question, will apply with equal force in favor 
of the use of alcoholic drinks. 

But perhaps in the midst of our arguments 
against tobacco, in comes some sage matron 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 81 

and informs us that it is very useful as a medi- 
cine ; she has known smoking to cure tooth-ache, 
and snuff-plasters to cure croup, etc., etc. Such 
medical dames are often met with ; but they are a 
very unsafe class of practitioners, being ignorant 
of the danger that always attends the use of this 
article when employed as a medicine, children 
and sometimes adults have been killed by such 
means. It is proper to say that tobacco is not 
needed for any medical purposes, there being no 
case in which it might be employed where some- 
thing else less nauseous and less dangerous, 
might not answer the indications quite as well ; 
but if it is ever to be used as a medicine, an arti- 
cle of so much power, and so depressing in its 
effects, should never be prescribed or made use 
of by any but well educated medical men, and 
then used with great caution. But if its cura- 
tive powers were as great as some would have 
us believe, this simple fact would be an unan- 
swerable argument against its common use. 



82 . TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER IX. 

Disorders that arise from sleeping with those who use 
tobacco. — Case reported by Dr. Huff of New York. — 
Statement of Dr. Prout. 

It is undoubtedly true that sleeping with a per- 
son who uses tobacco freely often has a prejudi- 
cial effect upon one who does not use it. As 
has been said before, the poisonous oils and alka- 
loid of tobacco are taken into the system and 
mixed with the blood whenever the article is 
used ; a large portion of these poisons after going 
the rounds of the circulation pass out of the body 
through the lungs, as the breath of every smoker 
or chewer testifies ; therefore it is plain that any 
one who sleeps in the same bed with such a per- 
son must necessarily be inhaling the poison 
second-handed all night long; a case in point is 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 83 

reported by a physician of much experience : 
u The young wife of a great smoker grew pale, 
lost her appetite, become affected with palpita- 
tions of the heart, trembling of the limbs and a 
death like sinking at the pit of the stomach : her 
sleep was often interrupted with darting pains 
and frightful dreams ; she become nervous with 
symptoms of hysteria. At first her physician 
was unable to account for this medly of distress- 
ing affections, but at length it occurred to him 
that they resembled the effects of tobacco ; he 
communicated his suspicions to the husband who 
immediately cast away the cigar and had the 
satisfaction of seeing his wife recover in a short 
time without the aid of medicine." 

Ifti a public address delivered a few years ago 
by the Rev. Mr. Trask of Fitchburg, Mass., he 
made a touching appeal to the ladies on account 
of the wrongs which they endure from this com- 
mon nuisance. 

The mischievous effects upon smokers and 
chewers themselves are more numerous and 



84 

serious than is generally supposed. It is pre- 
sumed that there is scarcely a physician in 
the United States who has an extensive prac- 
tice who has not ou his list of invalid parents 
some whose disorders are mainly owing to the 
use of tobacco ; medical statistics abound with 
such reports. The following is among a large 
number of similar cases reported by Dr. Gers- 
ham Huff of New York. 

" We are acquainted with a gentleman who. some 
years since appeared to be wasting away without 
any specific disease: his evenings were pleasant 
and gay, his conversation instructive and enliven- 
ing, and his general appearance, save a shrinking 
of the muscles and a cadaverous hue of counte- 
nance, that of a man in health ; but the morning 
found him listless and inactive, the tongue furred, 
the hands hot, the pulse fluttering, weak and ac- 
celerated— W3 may add, with a general prostra- 
tion of the vital functions." 

" His friends became alarmed, and physicians of 
eminence were consulted : by some he was pro- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 85 

nounced to be in m rapid consumption ; others 
were of the opinion that the disease lay in the 
liver; while a third declared it to be a peculiar 
species of neuralgia. In conversing with him one 
evening on the distinct peculiarities of his even- 
ing and morning sensations, we inquired if he ate 
suppers. No, was the direct reply. We then 
further inquired if any alcoholic stimulus was 
taken in the evening. Nothing stronger than 
cider, and only one glass of that, was the answer. 
Our friend was at the time smoking. It immedi- 
ately occurred to us that the numberless and va- 
rious symptoms presented, which seemed to baf- 
fle all attempts at a correct diagnosis, might arise 
from the effects of tobacco on the nervo-muscular 
system, and through it on the organic vital func- 
tions. Upon asking how many cigars he smoked 
per day in addition to constant chewing, we were 
answered," 'About eight ox nine.' 1 

" We had now no doubt of the cause of his di- 
sease : it stared us in the face." 

u We advised him to abstain gradually from the 



86 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

entire use of tobacco, and he would regain his 
health. Our advice was followed : he is now, 
after a lapse of thirteen years, in the possession 
of robust health, and a physical frame equal to 
that of any man of equal stature, a good appetite, 
an overflow of natural spirits ; and morning finds 
him in the enjoyment of that health with which he 
retired to rest on the preceding evening." 

Says Dr. Prout, in his book on " Diseases of 
the Stomach and Urinary Organs": "There is 
an article much used in various ways, though not 
as an aliment) the deleterious effects of which on 
the assimilating organs, etc., require to be briefly 
noticed, viz. : Tobacco. Although confessedly 
one of the most virulent poisons in nature, yet such 
is the fascinating influence of this noxious weed, 
that mankind resort to it in every mode they can 
devise, to insure its stupefying and pernicious 
agency. Tobacco disorders the assimilating func- 
tions in general, but particularly, as I believe, the 
assimilation of the saccharine principle. I have 
never, indeed, been able to trace the develop- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 87 

ment of oxalic acid to the use of tobacco ; but 
tbat some analagous and equally poisonous prin- 
ciple (probably of an acid nature) is generated 
in certain individuals by its abuse, is evident from 
their cachetic looks, and from the dark, and often 
greenish-yellow tint of their blood. The severe 
and peculiar dyspeptic symptoms sometimes pro- 
duced by inveterate snuff-taking are well known ; 
and I have more than once seen such cases ter- 
minate fatally, with malignant disease of th e 
stomach and liver. Great smokers, also, es- 
pecially those who employ short pipes and ci- 
gars, are said to be liable to cancerous affections 
of the lips. But it happens with tobacco, as with 
deleterious articles of diet: the strong and heal- 
thy suffer comparatively little, while the weak and 
predisposed to disease fall victims to its poison- 
ous operation. Surely, if the dictates of reason 
were allowed to prevail, an article so injurious to 
the health, and so offensive in all its forms and 
modes of employment, would speedily be ban- 
ished from common use." 



88 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

Druitt (Principles of modern Surgery, p. 353) 
says : " Amaurosis is liable to be induced by 
certain narcotico-acrid poisons, such as belladon- 
na, and especially by tobacco, whether adminis- 
tered in poisonously large doses by accident, or 
used slowly and frequently in the form of muff or 
smoke." 

Again the same author says : " Tobacco, like 
alcohol, is also an intoxicant in whatever form it is 
taken ; it creates thirst and is thus apt to lead to 
the use of alcoholic drinks; it has a benumbing, 
withering effect on the intellectual powers, and 
demoralizes the feelings." 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 89 



CHAPTER X. 

The effects of tobacco upon the appetite considered. — 
Smoking leads to drinking, and drinking to smoking. — 
An extract from Dr. Budgett of London. 

We would not be understood to say that the 
use of tobacco always diminishes the appetite for 
food ; such is usually the case, especially in del- 
icate individuals, persons of nervous tempera- 
ments, and sedentary habits, and in young be- 
ginners ; but we do sometimes meet with indi- 
viduals who use tobacco freely and also consume 
large quantities of food, and yet such persons are 
generally thin and spare. This is readily ac- 
counted for : as we have said before, tobacco vi- 
tiates the salivary and gastric fluids, and often 
renders them acrid, by which a moibid appetite 

is created ; the man may eat voraciously, but in 
IF 



90 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

consequence of the depraved condition of the 
stomach his food will be but imperfectly digested, 
and therefore a larger amount will be necessary 
to supply the nutriment required. The body is 
not nourished in proportion to the quantity of food 
taken, because, owing to a morbid condition of 
the organs of digestion and assimilation, only a 
portion of the nutriment taken is appropriated. 

Besides, when the system is exhausted, as it 
always must be more or less, by the profuse sali- 
vation which the free use of tobacco produces, a 
larger quantity of nutriment is required to com- 
pensate for the loss sustained ; accordingly we 
often see persons in the last stage of Pulmonary 
Consumption who have craving appetites. There- 
fore it is obviously unsafe to conclude that tobac- 
co does no harm so long as the individual can 
eat heartily. 

What if an individual is not aware at the time 
that he is suffering any injury whatever from the 
use of tobacco, alcohol, or any other pernicious 
indulgence ? He is contracting a debt, for the 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 91 

payment of which his whole system is mortgaged ; 
he may appear to get a long credit, but as sure 
as he lives a day of reckoning will come, and he 
will be required to make atonement for every fla- 
grant violation of the laws of his being. 

It is thought by many, that the use of tobacco 
leads to the use of intoxicating liquors. This is 
however, denied. by some, who assert that the con- 
trary is true : that drinking leads to smoking and 
not smoking to drinking. Such an argument can- 
not be 'worth much to the advocates of tobacco, 
for it certainly shows their friend to be in very 
poor company. There can be no doubt but the 
two vices are closely connected, and if all smokers 
do not drink, nearly all drinkers either smoke, or 
chew tobacco. Both alcohol and tobacco are 
powerful narcotics, and are taken on account 
of the pleasurable sensations which they produce, 
and when once an individual resolves to sacrifice 
the dignity of his intellectual nature to sensua T 
gratifications, he may seize upon that which it) 
the most readily obtained : it may not be convert 



92 



ient for him always to have alcohol by his side, 
but he can always have a cigar in his mouth or 
in his pocket. 

Extracts from Dr. Budgett's instructive pa- 
per, on " The Tobacco Question, Morally, So- 
cially, and Physically Considered :" 1857. Dr. 
Budgett remarks : " Two hundred and sixty years 
ago, tobacco smoking was described as 'a branch 
of the sin of drunkenness;' but during the last 
ten or fifteen years, the consumption of the weed 
has so increased, especially amongst young peo- 
ple, that we cannot even yet comprehend its in- 
fluence or result. 

" Still, the habits and manners of a country stamp 
its identity ; and if a New Zealander, or any man- 
ly representative of any of our conquered coun- 
tries, which we call colonies, could place himself 
in London, Manchester, or any of our large cities, 
and ask to be shown the youth of our present 
'time, the fathers of the next generation, he would 
look in vain for the strengh of limb, the Saxon 



AND WHAT IT DOES. &3 

energy, the mens sana in corpore sano which has 
carried us successfully in every land. 

u If some old warrior read this, perchance he 
may smile with contempt ; but, before he does 
so, I would recommend him to take his stand at 
nine in the morning in any thoroughfare leading 
to London ; scan carefully the thin, pale faces 
on every omnibus ; measure in his mind's eye 
the narrow shoulders, the shuffling walk of the 
great majority of pedestrians ; and then let him 
tell me if he can recognize any of the manly ele- 
ments which were, in his early day, the pride 
and glory of his country. No ! Tobacco meets 
us at every corner ; it smokes on every omnibus, 
like the reeking of a dunghill ; puppies, in the 
guise of officers and disguise of gentlemen, puff 
their impertinence into ladies' faces, who may be 
unprotected in the streets ; tailors, clerks and 
shopboys, taking advantage of the early clos- 
ing movement, light their cigars as they draw 
on their gloves for an evening's ramble ; and lit- 
tle boys, from the costermonger to the crossing- 



94 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

sweeper, form smoking-clubs of from three to 
twelve, passing their one pipe from mouth to 
mouth, in the secluded nooks of every alley, from 
the railway arch to the mythical arcana of the 
Adelphi. It is here that vice grows strong in 
company, and here the little boy receives his first 
practical instruction in larceny from his more ad- 
vanced confederates ; around the pipe, young 
pickpockets hold their parliament. 

" That this is so, no one can deny. It is «a grave 
and important subject for any legislature to con- 
sider, which looks beyond the accepted rule of 
expediency. 

" The medical profession in France bear simi- 
lar testimony ; for the l Dictionnaire des Sciences 
MedicalesW a work of which it would be high 
treason in Paris to doubt the authenticity — after 
detailing at length the effects of tobacco amongst 
the workmen employed in the government facto- 
ries (for in France it is a monopoly of the State), 
goes on to say : " The abuse of tobacco is the 
same as of all other pleasures of excitement. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 95 

whether excesses of various kinds, strong liquors, 
and so forth (comme de celui de toutes les jouis* 
sauces par irritation, comme de la masturbation, 
de Tabus desfem?nes, des liqueurs fortes, &c), 
and that it is astonishing that more numerous 
evils are not the result.' Again : ' Parents can- 
not too much oppose the fearful custom of using 
tobacco ; often they allow it to begin with a cul- 
pable facility, and they do not appear to foresee 
the evils to which they deliver the youth whom 
they permit to contract this baneful habit ; often 
thoughtlessly recommended for some trifling ail- 
ment, the use of it is continued for the remainder 
of his days.' 



96 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER XI. 

Tobacco in the same category with intoxicating liquors. — 
Extracts from Professor Miller, and Dr. Marshal Hall. — 
Nicotin employed for murder. 

The more recent writers upon tobacco place 
it in the same category with intoxicating liquors, 
and no disinterested observer will find fault with 
that assignment; and it is impossible to say which 
of the two is doing the most mischief at the pre- 
sent time." The evils which follow the use of to- 
bacco are less glaring and frightful, and therefore 
often wholly overlooked by common observers. 
When some notorious drunkard is found frozen 
to death after a cold winter night, with a bottle 
in his pocket, or is seen to die by the way-side in 
a fit of intoxication, no one will mistake the cause 
of his death ; but because tobacco produces no 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 97 

such appalling spectacles it is too often thought 
to be entirely harmless, and very few will stop to 
listen to anything that may be said against its 
use. And yet it may be said that with few ex- 
ceptions, all the great medical philosophers of 
modern times have united in deprecating its use ; 
and it is worthy of remark that different individ- 
uals situated far apart, and under different cir- 
cumstances have come to similar conclusions upon 
the subject, and if anything more were needed 
this coincidence would add to the importance of 
such statements. 

Dr. James Miller, Professor of Surgery in the 
University of Edinbu-rg, and Surgeon in Ordinary 
to the Queen for Scotland, in a work of his recent- 
ly published, says : 

'• Tobacco is one of the most powerful of poi- 
sons. Give it, even in small doses, to a child, or 
to one of any age unaccustomed to its use, and 
its taste will be found unpleasant, while the effects 
will ye nauseous and disgusting. But habit brings 
a change in these respects. After a time of 



88 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

longer or shorter probation, and after perhaps no 
little sickness and distress in the course of it, the 
recipient of the tobacco — whether it be in fume, 
or powder, or solid mass — comes to find a 
strange pleasure and fascination in its use. And 
many a man, and woman too — nay, even many 
a stripling — would almost as soon want their dai- 
ly meal, as their accustomed cigar or pipe. 

" Now, what are the consequences of this ac- 
quired habit; Plainly three, at least, may be enu- 
merated : 

1. Harm, more or less, is done to the individ- 
ual. The theory of the law of tolerance, already 
alluded to, shows that ; and the proof may readi- 
ly be completed by adducing the result of expe- 
rience. In confirmed and excessive smokers, for 
instance, the tongue soon shows signs of disorder 
in the general lining of the alimentary canal ; the 
drain on the saliva — run to waste — causes thirst ; 
and the stomach gives plain token of an impaired 
digestion. The hand shakes ; there is a peculiar 
expression of the eye ; the heart palpitates; and 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 99 

the entire nervous system is evidently impaired 
in tone. This is bad enough ; but worse may 
follow. Local diseases, of the most serious kind, 
may attack the mouth ; and one or both limbs 
may become more or less completely paralyzed. 
' c No absolutely healthy man daily consumes to- 
bacco, in any form, or in any considerable quan- 
tity. If he seem to bear it with impunity, it is 
simply because, by previous use of the drug, he 
has induced a perverted or morbid state of sys- 
tem, to which further continuance of the drug's 
use brings at least a temporary relief. 

II. " The man becomes a slave. For a time he 
has gone on swimmingly with his u weed." But, 
by-and-by, he thinks to leave it off, on account 
of its expense, perhaps, or its inconvenience, or 
a sense of mischief done. But he finds it easier 
to acquire than to abandon — to take up than to 
lay down. There are two at the bargain-making 
in either case ; but at the beginning and the end 
their respective positions are reversed. 

III. "The evil, through your influence and ex- 



100 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



ample, is extended to others. Not only is harm 
done to yourself, but, by giving a character and 
commonness to the practice, you are the means 
of entrapping the unwary, and thereby extending 
the evil. You see little ragged urchins on the 
street clubbing their few pence to purchase tobac- 
co and a pipe ; then they congregate in some 
convenient stair, and, striking a light, take whiff 
and whiff about, till either sick or satisfied. They 
don't like the smell of the weed, far less its taste ; 
and how comes it that they give themselves this 
trouble ? Simply because they see their fathers 
and big brothers do the same, and they think it 
manly. Or see that breeched boy, with a hat 
and cane, fresh from his mother's apron-string — 
lounging on the portico, or strolling on the lawn, 
or swaggering even on the street, striving hard to 
seem at ease behind that enormous cigar — almost 
as big as himself — which seems rather to be 
smoking him than he it. Do you think that he 
would ever have ventured on such a bold experi- 
ment, unless he had seen men, gentlemen, sen- 



AI*D WHAT IT DOES. 101 

sible -looking gentlemen, such as yon, similarly 
employed." 

Again, speaking of the effects of smoking, the 
same author says : 

c< Some bear up under this, without much out- 
ward sign of physical evil, as hard drinker^ in 
this country may do ; but in general the con- 
firmed " victim " may not conceal his chain and 
shackles. His body grows weak and emaciated, 
his complexion sallow, his eye sunk and listless, 
his features haggard ; his body stoop?, afid ex- 
presses strongly, in every movement, a prema- 
ture old age ; the mind is weak and fitful ; and 
the moral tone is both lowered and led astray. 
This is the period of complete abject enslavement ; 
and the man that, starting from his danger, would 
struggle to be free, must face an amount of ef- 
fort, as regards both body and mind, that is all 
but overwhelming. One in a thousand may es- 
cape, as brands plucked from the burning. 

14 What sane and sober man will tamper with a 
drug like this, encountering such a risk for such 



102 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

a boon ? Yet it is done by thousands in other 
climes ; a like thing is done by thousands more 
among ourselves — all under the plea of luxury /" 
Dr. Marshal Hall, one of the greatest medical 
philosophers of the present time says : u It is 
plain that tobacco acts upon the cerebrum, the 
medulla oblongata, and the heart ; its effects are 
stupidity, defective breathing, defective action of 
the heart — forms of debility and impaired ener- 

gy-" 

The gradual and insidious manner by which 
tobacco operates deceives the common observer. 
Morbid changes are taking place in the system, 
but they are for the most part out of sight, and 
therefore they create no alarm. If an inveterate 
smoker or chewer is not cut off by casualty or 
some acute disease, he may perhaps live to com- 
parative old age, and when finally he dies, he is 
supposed to have reached the utmost limit of his 
natural life ; and yet, an anatomical examination 
might show to a scientific observer that the man 
who died at sixty, might probably have lived to 
eighty if he had been prudent. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 103 

When one dies by consumption, schirrhus, 
dropsy, marasmus, cancer, or any other disease 
brought on by the use of tobacco, non3 but medi- 
cal men look back of the disease to the cause 
which produced it, and therefore the real source 
of the mischief passes unnoticed, and the man who 
has committed a slow suicide is supposed to have 
died by some mysterious dispensation of Provi- 
dence. 

It has been ascertained that Nicotin, which is 
the poisonous alkaloid of tobacco has sometimes 
been employed like prusic acid for the purpose of 
murder. A few years ago a French- nobleman 
by the name of Bocarme, poisoned his brother- 
in-law by giving him nicotin in disguise, and was 
subsequently convicted of the murder, and 
hanged. 



204 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CH-A PTE B, XII. 

The free use of tobacco produces Individualism . 

The evils which proceed from the use of tobac- 
co are not always so obvious or so well under- 
stood as those that arise from the use of intoxi- 
cating liquors, so that the masses do not appear 
to be fully aware of all its most deplorable con- 
sequences. One of these is a tendency to indi- 
vidualism. 

Tobacco, more than any other narcotic known, 
tends to dissolve the domestic and social ties. Its 
influence upon the intellectual and moral facul- 
ties must vary with the amount used, the mode in 
which it is employed, the age, condition, and cir- 
cumstances of the individual. If smoking is not 
the most injurious method, it certainly is not the 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 105 

least. The life of a confirmed smoker is an ab- 
straction — he is wholly wrapped up in himself 
— whilst the brain is overpowered with tobacco 
his existence seems like a blissful dream, and so 
long as these pleasurable sensations continue he 
has little desire for social intercourse, unless, 
prompted by motives of self interest ; his attach- 
ment to his pipe or cigar is of the strongest kind, 
his domestic and social propensities become more 
or less smothered in that oblivious element, and 
the attention and affection that he should mani- 
fest toward a wife, child, friend or society is be- 
stowed upon this poisonous weed. His better 
half is tobacco ; and to this he looks for a large 
portion of his enjoyment. He may plight his 
troth to some lovely female on the bridal altar, 
but let her remember that he is already wedded 
to tobacco, and if that connection is not wholly 
dissolved, her share in his affections will be sure 
to decline. * Nicoticma never coquets, and her 
love once gained is not easily thrust aside. 

Tobacco. 

G 



106 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

The free use of tobacco commenced early 
in life is pretty sure to destroy all the masculine 
powers and propensities. Dr. Laycock, Profes- 
sor of the Practice of Physic in the University of 
Edinburgh says : ** If such an one marry he de- 
ceives his wife, and disposes her to infidelity, and 
exposes himself to ignominy and scorn. 1 ' 

Again he says : "If, therefore, ladies suffici- 
ently value their own happiness, and the health 
and happiness of their families, they ought not to 
marry smokers ; nor should they trust the pro- 
mises of reformation which such persons may 
make as they are seldom kept." 

There is abundant reason to believe that the 
free use of tobacco in any form early in life, by 
either sex, tends to disqualify such persons for the 
duties and responsibilities of matrimony. This 
may be new doctrine to some, but the proof is too 
abundant. We have only to consider the loose 
manner in which the conjugal relation is now 
held, the smallness of families compared with 
forty or fifty years ago, the slow increase of com- 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 107 

munities and districts by natural population. 
Look at the alarming and continually increasing 
catalogues of legal divorces announced at the 
<slose of every judicial term, and the still greater 
number of voluntary separations! Why is so 
much sterility and effeminacy observed among 
those who are constantly feasting upon tobacco ? 
The statistics of different countries appear to show 
that everywhere, in proportion as the use of 
tobacco has increased, natural population has 
-decreased. From 1841 to 1846, 1,200,000 
children were born in France ; but in the same 
number of years, from 1851 to 1856, only 256, 
O00 were born ; and it is said that in Spain the 
decrease is about in the same proportion, and it 
is probable that some districts in the United 
States could give but little better account of them- 
selves. 

Before cigars were seen, as they are now, in 
the mouth of almost every lad over a dozen 
years of age, nearly every young man, whatever 
might be his circumstances as to property, as 



108 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

soon as he became of age married, and com- 
menced business and housekeeping for himself; 
large, healthy, industrious, and prosperous fami- 
lies sprung up, towns and cities were built, and 
every kind of business was prosecuted with ener- 
gy. Such families were the nurseries of genius, 
science and enterprise ; from them sprang states- 
men and heroes ; the strong, sound, and good 
men of the nation, the pillars of the church, and 
the conservators of civil and religious freedom ; 
they lived to bless their race i enjoyed life them- 
selves and handed it down to others. But now, 
our streets are filled with effeminate, smoking 
bachelors, who drown all their manliness in 
oblivious tobacco ; they appear to suppose that 
the great business of life is to smoke. Beguiled 
by its lethean influence they allow the vigor of 
youth to glide away before they are ready to 
commence the world in earnest ; life's morning 
is spent in a dream, and its evening in premature 
senility. 
The antiphrodisiac effects of tobacca were dis- 



AND WHAT TT DOES. 109 

covered long ago. Amurath the fourth, Emperor 
of Turkey, who lived in the early part of the 
seventeenth century, became so much alarmed on 
that account that he feared that it would event- 
ually depopulate his empire, and therefore pro- 
hibited smoking by severe penalties. Not far 
from the same time, James the first, of England 
issued his denunciation against tobacco in a pub- 
lication called " The Counter-blast," but the re- 
sult has shown that mankind are ever more in- 
clined to be governed by appetite than by law, or 
reason. 

A writer in trie London Lancet for Feb., 1856 
says: "If the evil of smoking ended with the 
individual who, by the indulgence of a pernicious 
custom, injures his own health, and impairs his 
faculties of mind and body, he might be left to 
his enjoyments — his fools paradise — unmolest- 
ed. This, however is not the case : in no in- 
stance is the sin of the father more strikingly 
visited upon his children, than trie sin of tobacco 
smoking. The enervation, the hypochondriasis, 



110 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

the hysteria, the insanity, the dwarfish deformi- 
ties, the consumption, the suffering lives and 
early deaths of the children of inveterate smokers 
bear ample testimony to the feebleness and un- 
soundness of the constitution transmitted by this 
pernicious habit." 

Dr. Higginbottom of Nottingham, says : 
says : " After fifty years of> most extensive and 
varied practice in my profession, I have come ta 
the decision, that smoking is a main cause of 
ruining our young men, pauperizing the working- 
men, and rendering comparatively useless the 
best efforts of ministers of religion." 

Some of the Sultans and Bashaws of the East- 
ern nations as has been before observed, make 
use of very long pipes with spiral tubes which 
are sometimes so contrived as to pass the smoke 
through cold water before it reaches the lungs. 
This curious pipe is called the Hookah. The fol- 
lowing is an extract from a poem published in 
Paris some years ago. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. Ill 

The Seignior of the East is truly blest, 

By slaves attended as he lies at rest ; 

Some at his side rich floods of Mocha pour, 

Till with their extasy his soul runs o'er ; 

Others obedient, waiting at his feet, 

The hookah bring to make his joy complete. 

Wond'rous invention, first by wealth bespoke, 

To cool for luxury the heated smoke, 

To make it slow through scented waters pass, 

And cool itself in twisting tubes of glass — 

Quit what's impure, and all that's acrid leave, 

So that the lord shall only bliss receive. 

He makes his hookah equal to his wife, 

Both his mere adjuncts of voluptuous life ; 

Pure from the bath, perfumed, and full of grace* 

Both meet his kisses and his warm embrace. 



112 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTERXIIL 

Mental operations checked or suspended by the use of 
tobacco. — Persons accustomed to its use seldom abandon 
it. — Communication from Benjamin Silliman, M. D. 
L. L. D. 

Several years ago an English Surgeon by the 
name of McDonald announced as the result of 
his observations, that, as long as an individual is 
earnestly engaged in inhaling tobacco smoke he 
is incapable, for the time being, of mental exer- 
cise. Dr. McDonald says : " I may mention a 
curious fact, not generally known, but which re- 
quires only to be tried to be proven, viz : that 
no smoker can think steadily or continuously on 
any subject while smoking. He cannot follow 
out a train of ideas — to do so he must lay aside 
his pipe." The truth of this proposition appears 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 113 

to be confirmed both by observation and physio- 
logical investigations. 

Dr. Lacock, of London, in an article published 
in the London Times, says : " On the brain the 
action of tobacco is sedative. It appears to di- 
minish the rapidity of cerebral action, and check 
the flow of ideas." 

It has long been known that pressure upon the 
cerebrum either from external or internal agen- 
cies, produced instantaneous insensibility, which 
might be momentary, or permanent according to 
the nature or duration of the cause. 

Dr. John W. Draper, professor of Chemisrty and 
Physiology in the University Medical College, 
New York, says : " Pressure upon the brain, eith- 
er applied mechanically or through accidental 
effusion, produces at once functional inactivity, 
probably by interference with the due circulation 
of the blood ; and in like manner, any marked 
change in the chemical relations of that fluid ex- 
erts on the brain a corresponding effect." A lit- 
tle observation will be sufficient to convince any 



114 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

one that Dr. McDonald's proposition is mainly- 
correct, and, that during the time occupied by an 
individual in filling his system with the noxious 
effluvia of tobacco his mental powers must be at 
a stand still. If we should notice an inveterate 
smoker we should see him ever and anon remov- 
ing the cigar from his mouth ; this seems to be a 
kind of instintive operation in order to relieve the 
brain from the overpowering effect of the lethean 
sedative, and give the individual time to think. 
This idea may be new to many but it certainly 
deserves serious consideration as it goes to show 
the debilitating and dementing effects of tobacco 
upon the brain. After commenting upon the mis- 
chiefs which follow the use of tobacco, Dr. Mc- 
Donald says: u In conclusion I may state, that 
the germs of premature decay which the abuse of 
tobacco is spreading through the country, will 
ultimately, in my opinion, prove more overwhelm- 
ing than even the serious abuse of intoxicating 
liquors." 

So far as the testimony of the ablest and best 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 115 

of men both in Europe and America can go, all 
the evils that we have charged to the use of tobac- 
co are fully established, and no additional amount 
of testimony would strengthen the propositions ; 
the proof is abundant and incontrovertable that 
the improper use of tobacco tends to produce 
physical, intellectual, and moral impotency ; and 
that these effects are most obvious, and most de- 
plorable, when the habit is acquired and persisted 
in early in life. 

Some persons have become addicted to the 
habit of taking opium daily from having first used 
it in sickness to allay pain or procure sleep ; and 
many others have become drunkards from hav- 
ing used gin, wine, brandy, or bitters as a medi 
cine ; but the votaries of tobacco can offer no 
such extenuating plea. The young lad seizes a 
cigar and puts it to his mouth because, and only 
because, he sees others do so. In the beginning 
it is nothing but an idle habit without any neces- 
sity, or utility for its excuse ; but the habit gains 
strength by continuance, and by degrees attaches- 



11-6 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

itself to the victim ; the longer the practice is con- 
tinued the more difficult it is to break away from 
it. The individual looses his proper self control 
and gives himself up to a mischievous habit be- 
cause he has not sufficient resolution, and manly 
independence, to cast it off. Almost every nox- 
ious substance seems to possess the power of 
fastning itself upon its victim ; it is so with the 
deluded wretches among some of the eastern na- 
tions who eat arsenic, or swallow the juice of 
Gannibus Indica, and it is so everywhere with 
those who drink alcohol, take opium or any other 
stupefying narcotic. This shows the danger of 
tampering with any such noxious agents ; and also 
the great importance of guarding the young 
against them. How few old drinkers or old 
smokers ever reform 1 After the sbacklos are 
riveted upon the victim admonitions and entreaties 
are generally useless, and it is doubtless much 
easier to prevent twenty from adopting any such 
pernicious habit than it is to reclaim one invete- 
rate smoker or drinker* 



AND WHAT IT DOESv 117 

The following is an extract from a letter to the 
author from the Hon. Benjamin Silliman, M. D; 
L. L. D., Emeritus, Professor of Chemistry and 
Pharmacy in Yale College. 

" I am willing that you should quote me as de- 
cidedly hostile to the use of tobacco. I believe 
it is highly injurious to health, although its dele- 
terious effects may not be fully apparent until 
the habit has become so firmly established that it 
becomes very difficult to break away from it. 
It rarely happens that a person who uses tobacco 
habitually, enjoys good health ; and maladies are 
produced by it which are usually ascribed to other 
causes. In a social view the habit is filthy and 
disgusting — In amoral view the cigar is often 
the pioneer to vicious society and intemperance. 
If I see a young man smoking, especially in the 
streets, I am alarmed and think him in danger." 

Professor Silliman is too well known throughout 
the entire literary world to need any eulogium from 
us ; his extensive attainments, long experience, 
and high moral standing entitle his remarks- to 
paramount importance. 



118 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Tobacco a source of revenue in France. — One evil made t© 
support another, — Eum and tobacco as luxuries. — Do 
they add to the real enjoyments of life ? — Early history 
of tobacco. Prohibitions ineffectual. — The odious cha- 
racter of growing tobacco. — etc. 

In France the tobacco trade is regulated by 
the government and is made the source of na- 
tional revenue, therefore it is carefully watched 
and encouraged. The Emperor and Empress both 
smoke by way of encouragement ; it is dealt out 
to every soldier as a part of his daily rations, the 
highest civil and military functionaries, the clergy 
and the laity, professors and students, artisans, 
mechanics, and common laborers, all follow the 
example and contribute their proportion to swell 
the national revenue. Every cigar, and every 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 119 

ounce of tobacco consumed pays tribute to the 
government. Under this system the consumption 
of tobacco in France is continually increasing, 
and at the present time it is said to yield an an- 
nual income to the government of more than 
300,000,000 of francs, which is supposed to be 
about one fifteenth of the whole national revenue. 
This tax falls heavily upon the poorer classes, 
and contributes largely to depress and pauperize 
them ; yet it would be deemed almost high trea- 
son to speak against it anywhere within the juris- 
diction of that empire. By such means one great 
evil is made to support another, and the curse of 
tobacco is made to support the curse of war. The 
aged, decrepid, and the maimed, with helpless 
women and children, such as can render their 
country no other service, manifest their loyalty 
by smoking, that they may help France to trans- 
port the flower of her youth to fields of slaughter 
in foreign kingdoms. 

Happily for us the people of the United States 
are not subject to any such morbid influence. Our 



120 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

young men fear no arbitrary conscription that 
may take them from their homes and their friends 
to die by foreign bayonets, nor are they required 
to give their earnings for the support of royalty. 
Under God every one is the arbiter of his own for- 
tune ; he is free to regulate his conduct, and ex- 
ercise his powers in such manner as is most con- 
ducive to his own honor and happiness, and his 
success and prosperity in life are made to depend 
much upon the evils which he avoids. 

The very common idea that spirituous liquors 
are indispensable as medicinal agents has done 
much to baffle the cause of temperance, but no 
such reason can be urged for tobacco, as none 
but the most reprehensible quacks ever employ it 
now in medical practice : it is sometimes made 
use of by drovers and herdsmen to kill lice on 
cattle, but that is no good reason why men should 
eat it. It is no comfort in sickness, for even those 
who take it freely in health always positively re- 
fuse it when they are sick. 

Many appear to suppose that rum and tobacco 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 121 

add greatly to the enjoyment of life : then why 
should the male sex claim all the benefit of those 
blissful agents ; why should not woman be allowed 
her equal share in these necessary creature com- 
forts ? The answer is that every intelligent pure- 
minded female scorns the proffered aid of such 
artificial stimulants, and looks for happiness in 
more rational enjoyments. The truth is, neither 
rum nor tobacco employed as luxurious stimu- 
lants adds in the least degree to the sum total of 
human happiness, but a multitude of evils are 
liable to follow their use. 

Some may ask: may not a person smoke a 
little occasionally without injury ? The answer 
is, tobacco whenever, and however taken, is al- 
ways a poison ; and he that has the least to do 
with it is certainly the best off. 

The gallant General Markham' who was not 

long ago with the English army in India, never 

used tobacco himself nor allowed his personal 

staff to do so, and after extensive observations 

both in civil and Military life he made the follow- 

H 



122 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

ing statement as the result of his experience. " I 
may be mistaken, but I believe that all our 
greatest men — I mean intellectually — states- 
men, lawyers, warriors, physicians, and surgeons, 
have either not been smokers, or if smokers, that 
they have died prematurely." 

All that is known of the early history of tobac- 
co is, that when this continent was first discovered 
this vegetable was found to be in use among the 
aborigines. History says : " They employed it as 
incense in their sacrificial fires, believing that the 
odor of it was greatful to their gods. The priests 
of some tribes swallowed the smoke of the plant to 
excite in them a spirit of divination, and this they 
did to a degree which threw them into a stupor of 
many hours continuance. When recovered from 
this fit of intoxication, they asserted that they had 
held a conference with the devil, and had learned 
from him the course of human events. Their phy- 
sicians also got inebriated with the smoke, and 
pretended that while under the influence of this 
intoxication they were admitted to the council of 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 123 

the gods, who revealed to them the event of di- 
seases." * 

From the aspect and sensible properties of 
tobacco one might be led to infer that the Most 
High had forbidden its use by the force of natu- 
ral laws. The green plant is always extremely 
obnoxious and offensive to all the senses; When 
first seen, with the most odious of all vermin 
crawling upon its leaves, we are reminded of those 
noxious vegetables which fabulists tell us are found 
on the borders of the Dead Sea. But in its man- 
ufactured state much of its repulsive character is 
lost, although it still retains all its deadly principles. 
So far as we know, its first introduction among 
any people has ever been opposed by both civil 
and ecclesiastical authorities. James the First, 
of England besides writing a book against it, for- 
bid its use by severe penalties. Urban the Eighth, 
issued a papal decree against it. Russia, Turkey, 
Sweeden and many other monarchies endeavored 
to banish it forever from their dominions by sum- 

* Bigelow's Nature in Disease. 



124 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

mary prohibitions. The early Puritans strenu- 
ously opposed it, and the Old Colony of Massachu- 
setts repeatedly passed laws against it. The early 
records of Harvard University show that the 
faculty of that institution intended to exclude it by 
ordaining that, "No scholar shall take tobacco, 
unless permitted by the president, with the con- 
sent of their parents and guardians, and on good 
reason first given by a physician, and then in a 
sober and piivate manner. 

But in spite of the mandates of sovereigns and 
the bulls of popes — in opposition to all civil and 
ecclesiastical authority, the cultivation and em- 
ployment of this noxious plant have increased 
with surprising rapidity, until its pernicious effects 
are felt in all parts of the world. The sensual 
propensities of men have bid defiance to all laws, 
and despised all restraints until the article of tobac- 
co has become an important item in the agricul- 
tural, commercial and manufacturing interests of 
the world. Its acme is not probably yet reached, 
and its destructive effects upon* the human race 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 125 

admit of no computation. As we have said be- 
fore when the plant has arrived to a state of ma- 
turity the tobacco field is a most unwholesome and 
disagreeable sight. All other cultivated grounds 
are more or less pleasant and desirable : fields of 
growing grain, pastures, meadows, orchards and 
gardens, fruit and shade trees, all seem lovely, 
and calculated to awaken sentiments of admira- 
tion and gratitude in the beholder ; but the sight 
of a tobacco field is the very reverse of this. As 
we approach it an instinctive sense of desolation 
creaps over us, and we feel as though treading 
upon forbidden ground. In its aspect the tobacco 
plant is the most odious and repulsive of all vege- 
tables. No beast or bird, wild or tame, will ever 
taste it — no living creature except a horrid kind 
of vermin that is found no where else is ever seen 
upon it — to all who are not familiar with the sight 
its pale green foiiage, with its unctuous surface, 
is nauseous and sickening in the extreme ; and if 
the spectator does not immediately turn away in 
disgust, he may be made giddy by the maddening 



126 

exhalations which hover over these lurid fields, 
and imagine himself standing upon the margin of 
some modern Asphaltides, surrounded with hissing 
serpents, their forky tongues vibrating from be- 
neath every slimy leaf. 

Although tobacco flourishes best in a sultry 
atmosphere yet this curse of the vegetable king- 
dom seems almost to bid defiance to climate, and 
is cultivated and thrives in the cold regions of 
New England. This very year 1860, in a limited 
district on the borders of the Connectticut River, 
it is said that there are about two thousand acres 
of cultivated tobacco ; and estimating the average 
product per acre to be fifteen hundred pounds 
the whole crop in that district will amount to fif- 
teen hundred tons, and this is a mere trifle com- 
pared with the annual product of the state of Vir- 
ginia : besides it is raised in many other places 
both north and south in the United States, and is 
also cultivated in amost every other warm coun- 
try on the globe. That which is raised in cold 
regions is more pungent and acrid, than that 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 127 

which grows in the West Indies and other hot 
countries, it is not considered so delicious, and 
consequently does not bring so high a price. 

Notwithstanding tobacco is so h'ghly offensive 
to all the senses — notwithstanding its known 
poisonous qualities, and its acknowledged per- 
nicious effects upon mankind, there are always 
men enough ready to cultivate it, and work it 
through all its stages and conditions until it is 
ready for the consumer ; and yet in all the vast 
amount produced there is not a single particle of 
food or medicine — nothing that is capable of 
sustaining life, or supplying any of the natural 
wants of the system ; but every leaf, and stalk 
and petal, is charged with a threefold poison — it 
is the American Upas — the bane of the world. 
In some of our northern states the cultivation of 
tobacco is rapidly increasing. Rich meadows 
which lately smiled with waving corn, rye, wheat 
and onions, now produce nothing but the noisesome 
tobacco : fields which once supplied thousands 
with wholesome food, are now loaded with poison 
for millions. 



128 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 



CHAPTER XV. 

Tobacco inclines the mind to Infidelity . 

There can be no doubt we think that the long 
continued use of great quantities of tobacco is 
likely to have an unhappy effect upon the moral 
faculties ; and many believe that it strongly in- 
clines the mind to religious infidelity. The fol- 
lowing are some of the considerations which lead 
to that belief. 

In general, wherever tobacco is most used, in- 
fidelity is most prevalent. This does not appear 
to be a mere casual coincidence, because there 
seems to be an obvious relation between the 
cause and this effect. When the brain and nerv- 
ous system are constantly, kept under the inebri- 
ating influence of tobacco, the individual becomes 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 129 

constitutionally a sensualist. Tobacco feeds and 
nurses the animal, at the_ expense of the intel- 
lectual man, and the dreamy stupor which it in- 
duces inclines the mind to skepticism and infi- 
delity. Under its beguiling influence the heed- 
less votary seems by degrees to loose the image 
of his Maker, and descend in the scale of beings 
towards the brutes that perish — human life comes 
to be regarded as an insulation — a temporary 
existence to terminate like the explosion of a 
rocket. Under its lethean influence men seem 
inclined to forget their moral accountability, and 
surrender themselves, soul, body and mind to a 
depraving sensuality — the great end of life is for- 
gotten ; or if some intuitive sense of immortality 
is felt, it looks forward to nothing higher than a 
perpetuation of animal enjoyment ; a Mahomedan 
paradise appears to be his highest aspirations. It 
is not pretended that all who use tobacco are 
necedsarily infidels, nor that all who do not use 
it are necessarily christians, but a careful obser- 
vation of its effects upon the brain and nervous 



130 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

system favors the belief that the use of tobacco 
when persisted in for any considerable length of 
time tends to depress, and smother the highest 
and noblest sentiments and aspirations of our na- 
ture, and drag the mind down to a grovelling ma- 
terialism ; and this idea is greatly strengthened 
by observations abroad. The annual consump- 
tion of tobacco in France almost exceeds belief: 
reliable statistics >show that in the year 1854 the 
city of Paris alone smoked, snufTed and chewed, 
no less than 3,000,000 lbs, or one thousand live 
hundred tons of tobacco, at a cost of 17,725,263 
francs ; and ninety eight per cent of this immense 
quantity was consumed by smoking. Here as 
we might expect, a stubborn infidelity pervades all 
classes ; like a moral mildew its blighting effects 
extend over all that mighty empire ; everywhere 
the Sabbath is disregarded or only observed as a 
holiday ; instead of the sound of Sabbath bells her 
streets resound with the clarion of war; and 
neither business, nor revelling give place to re- 
ligious worship. Their statistics show that of the 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 131 

whole number of children annually born in 
France, about one third are illegitimate ; matri- 
monial and family ties appear to be held lightly 
or wholly disregarded ; and beneath the clouds 
of tobacco smoke that fill every city and hamlet 
the darkest atheism lives and broods. Larnartine 
says: "I know — I sigh when I think of it — 
that hitherto the French people have been the 
least religious of all the nations of Europe. The 
great men of other countries live and die on the 
scene of history, looking up to Heaven ; but our 
great men appear to live and die, forgetting com- 
pletely the only idea for which it is worth living 
and dying. — History will have the air of an athe- 
ist when she recounts to posterity these annihi- 
lations rather than deaths of celebrated men in 
the greatest year of France: — The victims only 
have a God ; the tribunes and lictors have none. 
Look at Mirabeau on the bed of death — ' Crown 
me with flowers,' said he, c intoxicate me with 
perfumes, let me die to the sound of delirious 
music.' Not a word of God or his soul ; sen- 



132 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

sual philosopher : He desired only supreme sen- 
sualism, a last volumptuousness in his agony. 
Hear Danton on the platform of the scaffold at 
the distance of a line from eternity, ' I have had 
a good time of it, let me go to sleep.' His faith 
annihilation, his last sigh vanity !" 

In Germany the use of tobacco has. -increased 
with almost unparalleled rapidity during the last 
twenty five years, and here its connection with 
infidelity is strikingly illustrated ; once Germany 
believed in God and a Divine Revelation, but 
now the corroding influence of tobacco seems to 
have eaten out all the once elevated moral sensi- 
bilities of the people, and left nothing but a cold 
materialism and the most grovelling propensities ; 
spellbound beneath this moral plague she pre- 
sents a sad example to the christian world. 

In Spain a nominal Christianity is still main- 
tained by force of law, but its spirit and vitality 
appear to have passed away, and nothing but the 
abrogation of an imperial edict seems wanting to 
plunge the whole nation into the darkest atheism. 



AND WHAT IT DOES, 133 

The all pervading influence of tobacco like a 
moral incubus, stifles every living thought and 
principle, and paralyzes every progressive effort. 

Let the historian watch the progress of tobacco- 
smoking in any part of the world and he may 
see at the same time the equal march of infidel- 
ity. If we look at the United States we see 
smoking and an oblivious infidelity moving for- 
ward with the same measured strides ; look any- 
where, and the more we examine the subject the 
more we shall be satisfied that the use of tobacco 
promotes domestic, social, civil and religious in- 
fidelity. 

It is probable that many who are well satisfied of 
the injury done to the animal system by tobacco 
will be very slow to believe that it has any influ- 
ence whatever upon the mind and moral conduct. 
The idea, though not entirely new, may yet, be in 
advance of the age, and it will undoubtedly meet 
with severe criticism. Yet it is obvious that narco- 
tics do effect the mind and moral powers in various 
ways. Alcoholic liquors generally excite anger; 



134 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

one partially intoxicated is strongly inclined to 
quarrel, his organ of combativeness is aroused, 
he is courageous and courts controversy, and 
a very large portion of all the murders are com- 
mitted under its maddening influence. But the di- 
rect effect of tobacco is quieting, the Calumet is 
a token of peace and enduring friendship. 

Strychnine excites one class of propensities, 
and Belladonna another. The votaries of opium 
and tobacco experience a sad depression of spirits 
when the happifying stimulus has passed of; and 
the morbid agent must be frequently repeated or 
the victim is unhappy. Deprived of his accus- 
tomed anodyne he " feels an aching void which 
nothing else can fill. 5 ' In these dark hours the 
man is out of love with life — all his recollections 
of the past, and all his visions of the future are 
filled with gloomy spectres — existence seems a 
burthen. When these paroxisms of extreme de- 
pression are repeated often, and continued long, 
they strongly incline the individual to self de- 
struction; accordingly we find that suicides are 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 135 

most numerous where narcotics are most used. 
In the work of self destruction, tobacco comes in 
for a share. 

According to reliable statistics the average 
annual number of suicides committed in France 
is about three thousand, being sometimes above, 
and sometimes bslow that number. Suicide, 
unless the victim is absolutely insane, is practical 
atheism ; it is a solemn denial of all the truths of 
religion, and the awful result to which the loss 
of moral principle may lead. It is true that these 
are only extreme cases, yet they indicate the 
general tendency of such morbid influences. 

The power of persistant tobacco inebriation to 
deprave the moral faculties is now attracting the 
attention of medical, and moral philosophers. In 
some European dioceses the bishops will not ad- 
mit any to confirmation who are known to use 
tobacco ; and some of the Methodist conferences 
in the United States have recently refused to li- 
cense for the ministry any candidates who use 
tobacco. Leading members pf the Society of 



136 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

Friends have long regarded tobacco as having a 
demoralizing tendency, and earnestly opposed its 
use. So it appears that the evil is seen, and the 
reformation attempted where it should be, at the 
fountain heads. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 137 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Drugging cigars for felonious purposes — They may be- 
come the medium of communicating a noisome disease. 
— Extracts from Drs. Johnson and Solly, etc. 

Several years ago American travellers found 
that in some foreign countries, crafty knaves 
sometimes drugged cigars with some stupefying 
poison in order to rob or murder their victim, 
whilst he remained in a state of profound insensi- 
bility. Among the articles employed for that 
purpose, Opium, Indian Hemp, Hemlock, and 
Deadly-Nightshade were found ; any of these 
might be rolled up with the tobaeco-leaf, and the 
appearance of the cigar so made would not be- 
tray the villany ; but whoever smoked one of 
them soon became giddy, and sunk in a short 

time into a profound coma, and became an easy 
I 



138 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

prey to his diabolical captor. The Editor of the 
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, whilst 
travelling abroad, says: "I suppose that it is 
Hemp, and not Opium, as generally supposed, 
with which cigars are drugged, and made the in- 
struments in the hands of designing men in Lon- 
don and other great cities on the continent for the 
perpetration of many dreadful crimes." 

As might have been expected, eastern pick- 
pockets and felons were not long allowed the ex- 
clusive benefit of this infernal discovery, but 
quick as thought American desperadoes seized 
upon it and put it in practice. Armed with these 
deadly weapons, demons in human shape prowl 
about, watching for victims. If an unsuspecting 
individual takes one of these poisoned cigars, 
perhaps before it is half used up he is stupefied, 
robbed, and left to recover or die as the case may 
be, and the perpetrators of the villany pass on un- 
molested. There is much reason to believe that 
instances of this kind are not uncommon in some 
of our large cities. The stranger who is known 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 139 

to have money about him perils his life if he 
takes a cigar at a gambling saloon or other place 
of doubtful reputation. This is a most dangerous, 
and horrid species of viilany ; the assassin needs 
neither bludgeon, pistol, nor knife ; nothing but 
a few cigars of ordinary external appearance, but 
charged within with death. Thus disguised, the 
most guilty wretches may walk our streets with 
fearless impunity, perpetrate their villanies and 
go unpunished. 

Another frightful consequence sometimes fol- 
lows the use of cigars : in large tobacco manu- 
factories persons of loose morals and filthy habits 
are very liable to be employed, and cigars made 
by such hands do sometimes contain the virus of 
a foul disease, and by this means that horrible 
affection is said to be sometimes communicated 
to innocent and unsuspecting lips. Upon this 
subject, Dr. Johnson writing for the London Lan- 
cet, Jan. 1859, says: "It is certain that devoted 
smokers are liable to both constitutional and local 
disorders of very serious characters. Among the 



140 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

former we notice, giddiness, sickness, vomiting, 
dyspepsia, diarrhoea, angina pectoris, diseases 
of the liver, pancreas, and heart, nervousness, 
amaurosis, paralysis, apoplexy, atrophy, deaf- 
ness, and mania. Amongst the latter, ulceration 
of the lips — not unfrequently of a syphilitic 
character from the morbid matter introduced into 
the healthy subject by smoking infected cigars, 
or by pipes which have been used by infected 
persons." 

That such things are liable to happen, is a well 
established principle in medical jurisprudence, 
and it is presumed that many such anomalous 
cases have occurred, which have been mistaken 
for cancerous, or scrophulous affections, and at- 
tended with ulcerations of the lips, cheeks, 
throat and tonsils, followed by other characteristic 
developments. 

On this subject, Dr. Solly of London, says: "I 
have been asked to produce facts in proof of the 
deleterious effects of tobacco, and facts in abun- 
dance shall be forthcoming when I have bad a 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 141 

record kept of its effects in my hospital cases ; 
but the facts which I have now by me being pri- 
vate cases, contain details the relation of which 
would involve a breach of confidence which 
nothing would justify. " Those who will not re- 
gard such hints as these must be either reckless 
or dull of apprehension. 

The American savage gave the European 
tobacco, and in return the European gave the 
savage the most foul of all diseases, and never 
did hostile nations inflict more severe, or lasting 
injuries upon each-other : each carries with it a 
perpetual tendency to exterminate the race. 

Since we commenced this manual we have been 
informed that snuff-taking still exists in some lo- 
calities to a greater extent than we had supposed, 
and that besides the ordinary manner of using it, 
this filthy powder is sometimes taken into the 
mouth by females, and used as men do junk 
tobacco ; and that in some instances ladies of 
rank, thrust a large pinch of snuff into the mouth 
before going out in the afternoon, or evening, for 



142 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

the purpose of creating a temporary excitement. 
We are told also, that some ladies rub their teeth 
and gums with snuff, either alone or mixed with 
some other powder, under the mistaken impres- 
sion that it preserves the teeth from decay, and, 
that it is often used in that way until those who 
so employ it learn to love it, and continue its use 
for the sake, of its exhilarating effect; it is said 
also that little girls, not more than eight, or ten 
years of age, have sometimes learnt to immitate 
their older sisters and purchase snuff to eat, as 
some boys do rum to drink. But we presume 
that these are only solitary instances, and that 
the great body of American ladies are free from 
the sin of tobacco ; we are sure that the passion 
for snuff- taking is fast passing away, it is hoped, 
never to be revived again. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 143 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Considerations connected with reform. 

The power of tobacco over its victim is a sub- 
ject for serious consideration. The habit is gen- 
erally commenced in a thoughtless manner, with- 
out any regard to future consequences. At first 
the article may be used only occasionally, and 
taken up and laid down at pleasure, with a per- 
fect unconcern — the individual has no idea of 
contrating any fixed habit ; but his desire for the 
article increases with its use, its power steals 
over him secretly, and when he thinks that he 
can break off, and makes the attempt, he finds to 
his surprise that it is next to an impossibility to do 
so — he has played with a viper until he is bitten, 
yet he is enchanted and cannot fly from it. At 



144 TOBACCO, V.'IIAT IT IS 

first, a goddes seemed to lead him gently in the 
dance, and surround him with gaity and pleasure, 
but the arm that first embraced him so fondly 
refuses at length to let him go. Whilst the heed- 
less votary fed upon golden dreams unseen hands 
bound him with chain»and he has become a cap- 
tive, and his escape : 3 attended with difficulty and 
uncertainty. If he attempts to rid himself of this 
bosom enemy he is depressed in spirits and un- 
happy — unexpected troubles suddenly spring up 
around him — the demon Nicotin haunts him, and 
his hand as if moved by some invisible power, is 
continually searching his pockets for tobacco ; 
the man has lost his wonted self control, and 
after suffering in this way for a time he generally 
yields to the imperious demands of a morbid ap- 
petite. Universal experience proves that when 
the habit is once firmly established scarcely one 
in a thousand ever wholly abandon it ; and it too 
often happens when tobacco is given up that some 
intoxicating drink is taken as a substitute. 

History shows the power of this habit in the 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 145 

utter futility of all civil and ecclesiastical prohibi- 
tions, and it must now be evident that the world 
can never be thoroughly reformed by lecturing 
old smokers and old drinkers ; it is true some 
resolute high-minded men do sometimes break ofF 
by the force of their own wills, but the vast mul- 
titudes which now fill the world with filth and 
smoke will never be sensibly lessened by such 
sporadic reformations so long as they continue to 
draw into their ranks the young and undented. 
It is believed that most of our American citizens 
who have arrived to the age of forty or fifty years 
and have become addicted to the use of tobacco 
seriously regret that they ever contracted the 
burthensome habit: they say, they wish they 
could do without it, but they think they cannot. 
Dr. Johnson says of English smokers : " I have 
scarcely ever met with one habitual smoker who 
did not, in his candid moments, regret his com- 
mencement of the habit. " 

Now if such is the case should not all parents 
be careful to guard their own children from con- 



146 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

trading the habit ? It is often begun early in 
life, under the parental roof, and here the pre- 
cautionary measures should commence. Let 
them begin in the nursery, and be cultivated by 
the domestic fireside. Let them form an indis- 
pensable part of home education, and be enforced 
both by precept and example. Let them be 
taught in common schools, and Sabbath schools ; 
and the rising generation be made thoroughly 
acquainted with the poisonous nature of tobacco, 
and the manifold evils which arise from, its use. 
Let men of intelligence and character in every 
rank of society raise their voices againtst it. Let 
an appeal be made to the common sense, the in- 
terests, patriotism, religious and moral sentiments 
of individuals and communities, and the appeal 
can not be made in vain. In the United States 
the province of moral reforms has generally been 
occupied by men, to the exclusion of the other 
sex, and this has undoubtedly been one reason 
why they have often made such meagre progress. 
The immense power that woman possesses over 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 147 

the religious, moral, and social condition of man- 
kind in all enlightened and refined communities 
has seldom been duly appreciated ; and no where 
else in the wide world is that power greater tha n 
in the United States. Here her sanctifying in- 
fluence is everywhere felt. Here woman is the 
great conservator, and protector, of all that is 
pure in morals, and holy in religion — her pro- 
vince is the heart, and her sceptre virtue. That 
power once fully brought out against tobacco 
would be irresistable — the united action of 
American females would soon banish this -nui- 
sance from the face of society. The subject is 
clearly within their province, and deeply con- 
cerns them. Whenever tobacco is used in a 
family it is a source of annoyance to the female 
inmates' — smoking pollutes the whole air from 
cellar to garret, and from the nursery to the 
drawing room, and every one within doors is 
obliged to inhale more or less of the noxious 
effluvia. The subtle poison finds its way into 
every apartment, and carpets, curtains, furniture, 



148 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

and clothing become impregnated with it — the 
murky clouds which the smoker belches out carry 
with them the effete and morbid matter from his 
own lungs, and more or less of this gaseous 
abomination is unavoidably taken in and breathed 
over again by those about him. If the man chews 
tobacco his housekeeper will have to perform the 
delightful task of cleansing spittoons, washing 
tobacco defilements from floors, carpets, furni- 
ture and clothing; and relieving his pockets and 
handkerchief of half used quids and mutilated 
cigars. Must not such tasks be extremely oner- 
ous to every delicate and sensitive female, and 
can any spirited woman submit to such odious 
indignities without complaining? If one thus 
situated should scold from morning till night, year 
in, and year out, we would not blame her. 

Some quiet men, to avoid anno} ing others, and 
being annoyed themselves, often retire from 
company so that free from all interruptions they 
may enjoy the full fruition of smoking. There, 
solitary and alone, the whole man seems in 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 149 

statu quo : thus situated he quaffs the etherial 
ambrosia with all the delight of a self created 
deity — this is the fool's paradise. Let not the 
silver tones of pratling children, nor the cheerful 
greetings of a wife, sister, or friend, disturb him 
— let no thought of a higher, or purer state in- 
trude upon his blissful monotony ; but let him 
take his fill at this lethean fountain, and immo- 
late himself at the shrine of his chosen saint. 

Our hopes of reformation lie through the diffu- 
sion of knowledge and the force of reason ; in 
the cultivation of more refined sentiments, and 
more exalted aspirations, in the sober second 
thought of an enlightened and virtuous public; 
and in the irresistable force of female influence. 
The more the subject is examined the greater its 
importance will appear. Reflecting parents wilL 
be more careful to guard their children against 
the pernicious habit — every prudent mother will 
watch her son with more care and solicitude, and 
the thoughtful sister will stay the hand of her 
little brother when he extends it to grasp a cigar. 



150 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

When the whole matter comes to be every- 
where clearly understood every consideration of 
interest, honor, and happiness will be found to 
stand in array against tobacco, and the poisonous 
weed will come to be regarded as only fit for 
sluggards and felons. 

Some of the divisions of the Sons of Tem- 
perance have recently discarded the use of tobac- 
co. This course is highly commendable and 
adds to the credit and importance of these grow- 
ing institutions. Go on, then, we say, in your 
praiseworthy mission, and teach the world by ex- 
ample as well as precept. Go on, to encourage 
the timid, and reclaim the wayward. Go on, to 
sustain the weak and raise up the fallen. Goon, 
and bring back the prodigal sons, reunite the 
broken links of the family circle, and restore the 
loved and lost to their friends and society. This 
is the spirit of genuine philanthrophy — do these 
things and all mankind will bless you. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 151 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Miscellaneous Observations and Reflections. 

The advocates of tobacco like those who follow 
any other pernicious habit are continually offer- 
ing excuses for it. Some tell us a that the prin- 
ciple harm arising from the use of tobacco is be- 
cause it does not agree with some constitutions.' r 
Acrid poisons are not apt to agree very well or 
very long with any constitutions. It is true that 
alcohol, opium 7 and other deleterious substances 
manifest their pernicious effects much sooner iii 
some individuals than in others, but this circum- 
stance is no security to those who show no signs 
of immediate injury ; the weak and the sensative 
may fall first, but this should alarm rather than 
quiet the fears of others — the soldier who is not 



152 

cut down by the first fire will not on that account 
he out of danger so long as the firing continues ; 
and we knew of no constitutions tha4 are proof 
against deadly agents whether in the shape of 
lobacco, alcohol, arsenic or leaden balls. 

Again, some physicians tell us that they have 
seldom or never noticed any very serious evils 
arising from the use of this article; then we say 
their optics are very obtuse, and they are dull of 
apprehension, or their field of observation has 
been very limited. 

Lizars, of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 
one of the most strenuous opposers of tobacco, 
say? : " The number of patients frequenting my 
surgery in the mornings is upwards of 2000 an- 
nually, and these afford me an extensive field of 
surgical observation in every department. It 
would appear that the cigar, or pipe, first pro- 
duces a small blister of the mucous membrane of 
the mouth, which, being daily irritated by the 
pungent weed, progressively ulcerates and be- 
comes cancerous." 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 153 

It would require a large amount of negative 
evidence to contradict one such witness as this, 
What if there are scores of men who know no- 
thing of the evils which hosts of others have wit- 
nessed ? such negative testimony amounts to no- 
thing when so much positive evidence of the most 
reliable kind is found everywhere and meets us 
at every turn. 

Again one assures us that he has often seen, 
" a sleek negro with his mouth always full of 
tobacco, his jaws grinding as steadily as a mill, 
and the purple juice all the while overflowing his 
lips, yet such creatures were healthy and strong 
as oxen " — and we presume that after using this 
kind of fodder for many years in succession they 
were about as intelligent as oxen. Huge masses 
of indolent, adipose matter may not be so readily 
or severely affected by a poisonous irritant, and 
its sedative influence may be more congenial to 
such phlegmatic temperaments; but if any envy 
the poor African such swinish pleasure — if they 
have no higher aspirations than this, then let them 



154 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

go, bask in the sunshine, and take plug and plug, 
whiff and whiff with him; but every prudent man 
will surely decline the loathsome banquet. 

Hitherto all the efforts of philosophers and mo- 
ralists to check the use of tobacco appear to have 
been wholly disregarded, and the hundred vol- 
umes which have been published against it have 
fallen like so many autumnal leaves to perish 
and be forgotten — facts and arguments have been 
looked upon as chaff to be blown away by the 
wind, and a morbid desire for tobacco-inebria- 
tion seems to have overcome all opposition until 
the few who do not use the pernicous weed are 
only so many solitary exceptions to an almost 
universal custom ; and yet in no instance has a 
single charge brought against tobacco been re- 
futed, but on the contrary the experience of every 
year and almost every day tends not only to con- 
firm them all, but also to bring to light new, and 
more astounding developments. 

The history of tobacco shows its blighting in- 
fluence upon nations as well as individuals. 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 155 

Everywhere as the use of this article has in- 
creased, the average duration of human life has 
diminished and natural population has declined. 
Under its depressing influence? the scale of intel- 
lect has fallen, and all the proud traits of honor, 
benevolence, and self-sacrifising heroism have 
been lost. The causes which contribute to the 
decline of nations may not be so obvious or so 
distinctly seen as those that affect individuals, be- 
cause several deleterious elements may be in 
operation at the same time, and because the 
change being upon a large scale may appear so 
slow as not to be readily computed. We do not 
witness the downfall of a nation from moral 
causes in a day, nor perhaps in the lifetime of a 
single individual, but when the decline is mea- 
sured by decades or centuries the change is more 
distinctly seen and understood. Spain was the 
first of all the civilized world to adopt the use of 
tobacco, and when her present condition is com- 
pared with what it was before that event it will 
be seen that she has greatly declined. What has 



156 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

Spain done during the last half century but smoke 
tobacco ? Who can show us her illustrious sages 
and heroes of the present day ? Where in all 
her dominions can be found such men as built 
the pillars of Hercules ? Where now is her world 
renowned Alhambra ? Where are her libraries 
of six hundred thousand volumes? Spain once 
had the proudest palaces and the strongest cas- 
tles, the bravest warriors and the boldest naviga- 
tOTs ; and when every other nation refused to aid 
Columbus in his search for this western continent 
she nobly espoused his cause, and furnished him 
with the means for pursuing his daring enterprise. 
Spain was once the home of chivalry, and the 
emporium of the arts and sciences ; she gave the 
world the first metallic currency that had credit 
among all nations. Spanish faith was incorrupta- 
ble, the Spaniard was ever true to his trust, and 
never forfeited his word. But now how changed 1 
'Her proudest towers and castles have fallen, and 
her cities and palaces are hasting to decay; the 
mildew of tobacco is upon her — her "boasted 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 157 

heraldry and pomp of power," with her once im- 
maculate integrity have passed away — her people 
have lost their physical and intellectual vigor, and 
are fast sinking into a state of ignorance, effemi- 
nacy and barbarism. 

In Spain tobacco is a government monoply and 
is one of its chief sources of revenue. The 
Spainard seldom chews tobacco but is always 
smoking or snuffing. Seville has the unenviable 
honor of having the largest tobacco manufactory 
in the whole world. According to Harper this 
stupendous edifice is six hundred and sixty two 
feet in length and five hundred and twenty four 
feet wide, covering an area of nearly eight acres ; 
the whole surrounded by an immense moat. 
Within, the structure is divided into numerous 
apartments, in which from five to eight thousand 
persons, chiefly females, are constantly employed 
manufacturing cigars and snuff*. When an Ameri- 
can gets a peep at the group of wretches that fill 
this plague spot of the world he is startled at the 
multitude of ghastly, cadavorous images by which 



158 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

he finds himself surrounded — it seems a charnel 
house, and its dingy inmates appear to know lit- 
tle more of the living world than the tenants of 
Egyptian catacombs. These females are called, 
in Seville, cigarreras. The girl of sixteen has 
the form of a skeleton and the face of a spectre ; 
to such forlorn beings virtue and chastity are un- 
meaning words. In this model erebus thousands 
spend their whole lives from youth to age ; happily 
for those who are doomed to this abomination 
their lives are generally short. This is Spain as 
she is now, and such is the vortex to which the 
cursed Hebanon leads nations as well as individ- 
uals. 

In a work recently published by Monsieur 
Fievee, he says: <c We are much deceived if the 
statistics of actual mental vigor would not prove 
the low level of the intellect throghout Europe 
since the introduction of tobocco. The Spaniards 
have first experienced the penalty of its abuse, 
the example of which they have so industriously 

4 

propagated, and the elements of which originated 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 159 

in their conquests and their ancient energy. The 
rich Havana enjoys the monopoly of the poison 
which procures so much gold in return for so 
many victims ; but the Spaniards have paid for 
it also by the loss of their political importance, of 
their rich appendage of art and literature, of their 
chivalry, which made them one of the first peo- 
ple of the world. Admitting that other causes 
operated, tobacco has been one of the most influ- 
ential. Spain is now one vast tobacco shop, and 
its only consolation is, that other nations are fast 
approaching its level." 

The consumption of tobacco in Great Britain 
has long been increasing and at the present ti^e 
it is said to amount to thirty millions of pounds 
annually, which is more than a pound to every 
man, woman and child in the kingdom of Great 
Britain. The government employs ships for the 
special purpose of bringing tobacco to London, 
and a dock of one acre in extent is set apart for 
the special use of these ships. The tl Queens 
Great Tobacco Warehouse V covers an area of 



160 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

five acres and is rented by the government for 
fourteen thousand pounds a year. 

It appears from statistical returns made to the 
agricultural bureau of the United States that for 
some years past the annual production of tobacco 
has been about 200,000,000 pounds, or about 
100,000 tons ; how much of this is exported and 
how much is consumed in our own country, we 
are unable to say, but it is evident that the home 
consumption of this vile weed is constantly in* 
creasing. Many American farmers devote some 
of their richest fields to the cultivation of this ar- 
ticle because they say, that the cost of cultiva- 
tion, and the average yield, can be calculated 
with more certainty than almost any other crop ; 
and tobacco always commands ready cash. 



AND WHAT IT DOES* 161 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Concluding remarks. 

It is a little more than three hundred years 
since the Red-man of America gave the European 
tobacco, from that small beginning it has spread 
over nearly all the world, until now it is said that 
no less than six millions of acres of the richest 
soil upon the face of the earth are annually de- 
voted to the cultivation of this plant, and it is 
calculated that about four fifths of the entire pop- 
ulation of the globe use it in some form or other. 
From this circumstance some have been led to 
conclude that an article so extensively employed 
cannot be generally injurious ; but it is a point 
well settled by medical men everywhere, that 
the duration of human life and the common 



162 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

standard of health have greatly diminished with- 
in the past two hundred years. Before the hu- 
man race had become contaminated by the use of 
rum, and tobacco, the great mass of mankind 
possessed sound constitutions; health was the 
rule and illness the exception ; but now, it is sel- 
dom that an adult is found anywhere wholly free 
from disease. Other causes have doubtless con- 
tributed to produce this state of things, but we 
are bound to regard the free use of tobacco and 
spirituous liquors as the chief agents in this uni- 
versal deterioration. 

Some may say that the strong desire which 
those who use tobacco have for it is proof that it 
is adapted to supply a want in the economy of 
human life ; but this argument is of little account 
when it is recollected that the love of tobacco is 
wholly artificial, and that there is always a strong 
aversion to it before its use has created a morbid 
desire for it. But if such an argument should be 
allowed, it would prove all that the most sensual 
eould desire. If the use of tobacco is indicated 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 163 

by the desire for it that its use creates, then, by 
the same rule the use of opium, alcohol, and 
most other narcotics is indicated in the same way. 
The more any individual uses of any these nox- 
ious agents — the more he is injured by it, the 
stronger his appetite for it becomes ; hence it is 
seen that all such arguments are altogether futile 
and absurd. Some will tell us that the evils re- 
sulting from tobacco are chargable to its excess, 
and not to its ordinary use ;H)ut a brief considera- 
tion will show the fallacy of this argument. It is 
certain that tobacco never supplies any of the 
natural wants of the body ; it never enters into 
the composition of bone, muscle, or any fibrous 
or glandular tissue. When taken in any quantity 
it tends to derange and exhaust the system, al- 
though the injury may be so slight at first as to 
be unnoticed. In like manner a few pennies may 
be daily filched from the coffers of a wealthy in- 
dividual without his perceiving the loss, yet he 
will by that means every day be made poorer. 
Tobacco is quite as hostile to human life as ar- 



26*4 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

senic, and in a large dose it may be as suddenly 
fatal. What would be thought of a parent who 
should give his boy arsenic, or deadly night-shade, 
to use temperately ? The tyro may go on to ab- 
stract only a few sands daily from the hour-glass 
of life, or he may dash the whole in an instant. 

The following account is from the Providence 
Evening Press Jan. 8th, 1861, and shows the inti- 
mate relation between tobacco and intoxicating 
drinks, and its powers a deadly poison. 

" Killed by Liquor Mixed with Tobacco. — 
At Central Bridge, Schoharie county, for the fun 
of the thing, the associates of Noiman Cole, con- 
cluded to wind up the day's drinking by mixing 
tobacco in his liquor. He drank freely of it, and 
died in the bar-room almost instantly." 
The tendency of tobacco to attach itself to its vic- 
tim is sufficient to overthrow all arguments in its 
favor. In a short time the habit becomes so fixed 
that it is almost impossible to break away from it. 
The first cigar is big with danger. The lad who 
begins with one or two cigars a day soon requires 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 165 

a dozen — the beginning is connected with the 
end, the temperate with the intemperate use of 
tobacco. Bat if it were true as some would have 
us to believe, that tobacco was intended as a 
special benefit to man, we should be led to won- 
der why Providence has be«n thus partial to our 
sex, when the more numerous trials and infirmi- 
ties of the other, would seem to make such arti- 
ficial aid far more necessary. Until this question 
is answered the consciencious husband should 
smoke no more than his wife, and the brother no 
more than the sister ; this rule would soon banish 
the filthy abomination from all respectable so- 
ciety. 

That the free use of tobacco either by smoking, 
snuffing or chewing tends to produce premature 
decrepitude is proved by the concurrent testimony 
of medical writers from Cullen down to the pre- 
sent time, and is reaffirmed by almost every day's 
experience and observation. The Caucasian race 
almost everywhere manifests symptoms of de- 
cline. The causes of this are to be looked for 



166 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS 

in the social and domestic habits of the people, 
and although other causes have undoubtedly con- 
tributed to this deterioration, yet, we can discover 
no single agent so universal in its application, 
and so depressing in its nature as tobacco. Ask 
any of our old men what they think of the young 
men of the present time, and they will tell you 
that they are inferior in size to their fathers and 
grandfathers ; they see none of those tall majes- 
tic forms, brawny limbs and ruddy countenances, 
that were common fifty years ago. Most of the 
young men of the present time, and especially 
those who have been born and brought up in 
compact cities where the whole breathing atmo- 
sphere is saturated with the malaria of tobacco 
are inferior in size to their ancestors, the bold 
figure, graceful symetry, and hale countenance 
of the Anglo-Saxon have given place to the slen- 
der form and sharp features ; the flush of health 
is gone from the cheek, because tobacco has sup- 
planted the rose; the suction of smoking has 
drawn in the cheeks and given the face a col- 



AND WHAT IT DOES, 167 

lapsed appearance. Personal defects, congenital 
deformities, and hereditary affections, appear to 
be constantly increasing. Although these symp- 
toms of decline may not be so obvious in rural 
districts, yet, as the taint is auppcsed to descend 
through succeeding generations, no particular lo- 
cation can long claim exemption from it ; and at 
length the sex which is least guilty ma^ come to 
suffer equally with the other. If so great a de- 
cline has taken place in the course of two or 
three generations, who can predict the result? 
Should the production and consumption of this 
article continue to increase for the next hundred 
years in the same ratio that they have for the 
last fifty it is impossible to imagine the conse- 
quences ; this however is not probable, but as 
epidemics often disappear for want of subjects to 
feed upon so tobacco may finally eat itself out. 
In attempting moral or social reforms the pow- 
er of example has been too often overlooked. It 
is a truth although it may do no good to say it, 
that the higher classes are to some extent re- 



168 TOBACCO WHAT IT IS, 

sponsible for many of the errors and faults which 
are common among the middle and lower classes. 
The late example of the English Queen in sitting 
for her portrait in plain costume, without her 
jewels, deserves the highest commendation. This 
eminent lesson of prudence, and economy, will 
doubtless have its effect in discouraging extrava- 
gance in dress, and the use of superfluous orna- 
ments. In the United States examples set by 
the wealthy, and influential, are sure to be fol- 
lowed by most others so far as their conditions, 
and circumstances will allow. When all who 
move in the higher circles are seen with cigars 
in their mouths, every hotel servant, and every 
baker's boy, is quick to follow the example. It 
seems, as if by magic, to elevate the humblest 
citizen to the same category of the most opulent 
nabob. If the obscure cottager cannot wear as 
fine cloth, and support as much style as the more 
wealthy, he can at least use as big cigars, and 
puff as ample clouds of smoke ; and it will be 
almost impossible to make him believe that there 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 169 

is any great harm in following such illustrious 
examples ; and so long as smoking is looked upon 
as a refined luxury and is common among the 
higher classes — so long as the reeking cigar is 
supported by fingers bedecked with gold and 
sparkling with diamonds — so long as beauty and 
fashion admire, or pretend to admire it, it will be 
of little use to lecture the masses upon the per- 
nicious effects of tobacco. But once let it be- 
come unfashionable and discarded from the 
higher circles, and the filthy habit would every- 
where decline ; its murky clouds would soon dis- 
appear from public streets and public saloons, 
tobacco would become a term of reproach, asso- 
ciated with the low and the vulgar, every thought- 
ful boy would despise it, and the polluting nui- 
sance would be compelled to take refuge in the 
secluded recesses of filth and shame ; fields which 
now produce nothing but this noisome weed 
would once more smile with golden grain, a sad 
reverse would come over the tobacco trade, and 
hundreds now engaged in this nefarious business 



170 TOBACCO WHAT IT IS, 

would be compelled to seek some more respecta- 
ble and more useful employment. These things 
deserve to be well considered by all whose exam- 
ple and influence contribute to form the charac- 
ter of individuals and communities. 

Forty or fifty years ago the use of alcoholic 
drink was almost as common and quite as popu- 
lar as the use of tobacco is at the present time. 
Spirituous liquors of some kind were thought al- 
most indispensable in every family ; they were 
supposed to be necessary in almost every case of 
illness or emergency, they were furnished to la- 
borers almost as statedly as provisions, and were 
universally proffered to visitors as a token of 
friendship. The Doctor drank as he went his 
daily rounds in attendance on the sick, the cler- 
gyman partook of the same hospitality when he 
made his parish visits, and the good matron felt 
extremely mortified whenever she found herself 
unable to offer her guest some favorite beverage. 
The attorney drank, and his client drank, the 
sheriff drank, and the judge drank : it was held to 



AND WHAT IT DOES. 171 

be indispensible both at weddings and funerals; it 
was administered to the infant in the cradle and 
the dying centenarian ; no public occasion could 
be celebrated without it, and it was thought to be 
no disparagement even for a high official to get 
beastly drunk on some extraordinary occasion. 
But a change has come over public opinion, and the 
use of intoxicating liquor is no longer considered 
respectable ; it has disappeared from the side- 
board, and is no longer seen in the parlor or 
drawingroom of those who make any pretentions 
to respectability. Its manifold evils have been 
pointed out, public opinion has pronounced its 1 
mandate, and the finger of scorn is steadily 
pointed against it. 

Here is a change that no one anticipated half 
a century ago, and we have great reason to hope 
that in a much shorter period this same unappeas- 
able finger of scorn, will, in this country at least, 
direct its withering force against tobacco. 



